Spanish-owned fashion retailer Zara’s Ronline presence is impressive, with its website being one of the fastest around and its app one of the best designed – two of the reasons why it was ranked so highly in the Strategy & Innovation Dimension. It is also closely attuned to customer opinion, running a worldwide customer feedback system that feeds into the company’s creative team, and influences company decisions on design and customer service.
Having opened its first sore in A Coruña, north-west Spain in 1975, Zara today has more than 2,100 city-based stores in 88 countries around the world. This includes stores in 28 EEA countries. Over the last few years Zara and its owner Inditex have embraced online platforms with gusto, resulting in an enviable online offering and setting an example for others in the field to follow.
Zara runs 16 websites across 16 countries, with each offering click-and-collect shopping. Across all these domains it is one of the fastest in cyberspace with an average load time of 3s. It’s UK website is the fastest at just 2s, with its Hungarian site coming in at 2.8s. It achieved nearly 96 out of 100 on Page Speed score in the IREU 500 research.
Its app, which is currently available in the UK, France and Germany, has been highly praised for its beautiful design and easy navigation. Clothes can be looked at from every angle thanks to plentiful images. These images are zoomable. Users are able to browse in their own languages (English, French or German), to check the availability of stock in local stores and, importantly, to buy. It also includes a scanner and multiple ways to share what you have found and will keep you up to date with the latest offers and deals. A centralised account means that, once logged in, users can move in and out of the app without losing what they were browsing or the contents of their baskets.
One of its strongest features is the way the app allows new customers to go straight to checkout, rather than having to set up an account first – a stumbling block that can put off first-time buyers from seeing transactions through to completion.
The Zara app cleverly gets round this by collecting new customer data as part of the checkout process. Once the checkout is complete, it then simply requests a password to set up an account.
