Access to the store from the palm of your hand: fashion retailer Zara continues to build on his ‘integrated’ shop model that increasingly blends online and offline. 25 Spanish stores are already taking the next step.
New features in the app
Zara is constantly adding new technology to its stores to make the dream of a truly integrated store model come true. This week, the Inditex subsidiary takes another step in 25 shops across Spain, including Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, A Coruña, Seville, Pamplona, Málaga and Badajoz. ‘Store Mode’ is the name of the new functionality that gives customers access to the shop of their choice from the palm of their hand. The Zara app offers customers three new features.
The first is ‘Click & Go’: shoppers can activate this feature from the Zara app to navigate through the store of their choice. They see the collections available for purchase in that store, they can buy a specific item online and, if they wish, pick it up from the store within 30 minutes.
RFID technology
The second function, ‘Click & Find’, uses the radio frequency identification system (RFID) that Zara deploys in all stores, which in turn supports the integrated stock management system (SINT). RFID and SINT make it possible to prepare online orders from the stores, providing customers with improved service and ensuring that the entire stock is available at all times, regardless of where it is physically located: on the sales floor, in the storage area behind the store or in one of the online warehouses. Once in the stores, customers can use the Zara app to locate the garments of their choice using a floor plan of the store.
Finally, ‘Click & Try’ allows customers to book a fitting room from the app, eliminating the need to queue up. The app is also ready for mobile payment and provides shoppers with an e-ticket, making the paper receipt disappear.
As the app gets more features, Zara is giving physical shops a digital upgrade. One of the consequences is that the retailer will open ever larger stores: smaller stores that lend themselves less to this integrated model will therefore be closed and/or ‘swallowed up’ by larger stores.
