Zara Pre-Owned offers repair, swap and resale services
Retail giant Zara will launch the ‘Zara Pre-Owned’ service nationwide on 3 November.
Zara Pre-Owned will allow customers to fix or pass on garments either online, in-store or through the Zara app. The repair service will be available for garments that need amendment services, such as seam repairs and zip replacements.
Customers will also be able to sell unwanted garments through the secure portal or donate them to the Red Cross.
The initiative has been designed to help customers make their clothes last longer and to make more sustainable choices. Paula Ampuero, the head of sustainability at Zara, said: “At this stage, this platform is exclusively conceived as a tool to help customers extend the lifetime of their clothing and take a more circular approach.”
The rise of fast fashion vs resale
The creation of fast fashion garments has grown exponentially over the last decade, meaning the number of items made now outpaces developments in resale and recycling infrastructure.
In a bid to combat this, the British Fashion Council is encouraging retailers to reduce the number of garments they produce to reduce their carbon footprint and to encourage consumers to shop more sustainably.
Inditex, the parent company of Zara, is the latest to step into this space, following Joules who resells through Reskinned and Marks & Spencers who resells children’s clothes through Dotte. John Lewis also provides customers with discounts when they bring five items back to their FashionCycle service.
Inditex has committed to carbon neutrality by 2040.
Large fashion outlets are welcoming more resale methods, as the market is set to double by 2025, reaching a value of $77bn, according to ThredUp’s 2021 Resale Report. By 2030, the resale market has the potential to reach up to $84bn, with the fast fashion industry at $40bn.
As the retail market is set to outperform fast fashion, more retailers are offering resale and repair services for consumers.
Zara has chosen the UK the be the test market to “push” the initiative. The service will be expensed to other key markets if it is successful.
