Inditex's Zara enters resale, UK is first test market

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 21, 2022

Inditex’s Zara is entering resale and repair for the first time with a test of the segment in the UK market. The new service means its customers can resell clothing they’ve bought from the retailer, as well as booking repairs.

 
The new offer launches on 3 November with suggestions that the service will be rolled out to further major markets if successful.

It will operate via Zara’s own website and app, although sellers will need to take their own photos. These will be added to with extra detailed product information from the company.

Zara’s head of sustainability, Paula Ampuero, said that the retailer isn’t expecting the service to be profitable at first with it conceived “exclusively as a tool to help customers extend the lifetime of their clothing and take a more circular approach”.

Resale — along with rental and repair — have become key parts of the offer for many retailers and brands at all price levels with a number of specialists emerging on the back of this strategic trend.

Big names to enter the area recently include M&S, Joules, John Lewis and Boohoo’s PrettyLittleThing, while only this week YNAP’s Net-A-Porter, Mr Porter and The Outnet rolled out their resale services to more markets globally.

This move comes alongside the large number of other resale options out there from giant specialists like France’s Vestiaire Collective or peer-to-peer operations from eBay to Depop and Vinted.

The trend is so important that Selfridges recently said it wants nearly half its interactions with customers to be linked to repair, resale or refills by the start of the next decade.