How Does Zara Open The Largest Store In Asia?

INDITEX group, which announced to close stores in the world on a large scale at the beginning of the year, its core brand Zara (demand area: 1000-2500 square meters; representative projects: Kunming Aegean shopping park, Shenzhen coastal city, etc.) has recently opened a four storey shop in Wangfujing pedestrian street in Beijing. This is not only Zara's flagship store in Asia, but also a store integrated with INDITEX group's new business philosophy.

Under the severe attack of the epidemic, even the fast fashion giants such as Zara are not immune. Why did TA choose to open a new store in the Chinese market at this time? What are the highlights of this flagship store? What are the strategic considerations of INDITEX group and what kind of anticipation does it have for the Chinese market?

It's more like a buyer's shop

Get rid of the clutter of fast fashion stores

Different from the golden location of shopping centers in the past, Zara has taken a fancy to the single building on Wangfujing pedestrian street in Beijing, and the flagship stores of MetS Bonwe and Hailan home have been set up here.

Zara, a flagship store with a total area of more than 3500 square meters, abandons the black and white main colors commonly used in the previous stores, mainly beige, log color and green. The hanger, fitting room, checkout counter and LED screen are all presented in circular or smooth and soft linear form. The items in the store are not concentrated in a large number, but are divided into independent ones according to different categories and styles Area. In addition, various series of works of art created by art students and teachers of Tsinghua University are displayed in every corner of the store, which is a cooperative project between the Academy of fine arts of Tsinghua University and Zara brand art.

Generally speaking, Zara, as a flagship store, emphasizes the sense of modernity and thoroughness as a whole. It gets rid of the cheap feeling of fast fashion brands, and shopping in Zara will not feel as crowded as before.

It is reported that the first to third floors of the flagship store are women's clothing area. At the same time, the exhibition hall is also equipped with a touch screen for display of new products and shoes.

This area not only displays a variety of personalized clothing, but also has a lot of limited products and products. According to the clerk, many series of products in this store are limited and unique, and other shopping center stores will not sell them. Such as Zara x zumalong's co Branded perfume, Zara's painting series.

In addition, the second floor of the store also opened a special area for Zara home series, providing the experience and online purchase service of the latest fragrance series of Zara home. Customers can also enjoy the customized service here, purchase the specified style of shirts and bags, and can embroider their own names through the machine.

On the fourth floor are men's and children's wear areas. Among them, the children's clothing area not only has many kinds of clothing for parents and children to choose, but also has round tables, stickers, color lead for children to play.

Zara staff said that the store model will be exported in the future and copied in other new stores.

Recognize online digitization

Push high tech shopping experience

It's not just about space, it's a collection of INDITEX's new retail technology.

In the transaction, Zara flagship store has a "online order" zone, where customers can place orders online in the physical store. With the latest inventory integration management technology invested by INDITEX group, customers can also place orders online, pick up goods from offline stores, or deliver goods directly from offline stores, making the store a small fashion logistics platform.

In addition to online and offline integration, Zara has been deeply involved in brand digitization, and this flagship store has also increased the size of retail technology: eight LED curve screens are specially set up, customers can obtain all information about the product by simply clicking on the electronic screen, and then click "send test on demand". The warehouse staff downstairs will receive the information at the first time and send the goods to customers Waiting room. Not only that, the electronic screen is also directly connected with Zara online official online stores, which can handle online inquiry and online ordering services.

In the self-service settlement area on the third floor, the customer puts the purchased goods into a specific shopping basket. The system reads the commodity information through the chip on the clothes lock, and carries out the summary settlement. The customer only needs to confirm the commodity information on the screen and complete the payment.

Even fitting rooms have been technologically engineered, with numbers coded at the top of each fitting room. When the customer enters the fitting room, the external screen will display green. Customers and staff can see whether there is a vacant fitting room at the fitting room queue, so as to judge the waiting time. At the same time, the fitting rooms are located on the third and fourth floors, and Zara staff said the arrangement was designed to allow consumers to look at each floor before trying on and shopping.

From the technical level, Zara Wangfujing flagship store can be seen as an important step in the transformation of INDITEX group's new retail.

Meet the "faster" challenge

It seems that opening big stores is not practical, but it is a trend

In the field of fast fashion, opening and closing stores is a common saying. However, in recent years, fast fashion brands have a "retreat tide" in China, such as Forever 21, new look, etc.

In September, INDITEX reported its results in half a year. According to the financial report, in the first half of this year, the net loss was 195 million euro (about RMB * * 1.5 billion); meanwhile, INDITEX group also joined the trend of store closures. According to its first quarter financial report, it plans to close 1000 to 1200 stores, mainly in Asia and Europe.

INDITEX Group officials said that it plans to close smaller stores, which will affect its Zara, Massimo dutti, pull & Bear and other brands. Take Zara as an example, most of its stores are the same standard stores, whether new products or promotional products are crowded in a space, and because of its "fast" attribute and the fast-paced circulation of goods, many of its stores are slightly disordered.

Why Zara chose to open "big stores" in China at this time, while its group kept closing "small stores" all over the world?

Generally speaking, every time a new market is launched, Zara will first open a shop in the most prosperous section of the central area of a big city, and then extend its tentacles to smaller towns, so as to make its brand influence radiate across the country without any advertising. This is the "greasy pattern" of the founder of INDITEX, amancio Ortega, which is like a drop of oil spreading slowly on the surface of a fabric. After Zara came to China, it has been the main store of many shopping centers. During the outbreak of the epidemic, Zara opened such stores in Wangfujing, which is also in line with the logic of expanding stores.

This year, however, Zara's label of "speed, choice, quantity and fashion" has been broken. On the one hand, with the rise of the national trend, consumers' aesthetic appreciation has been constantly cultivated and reshaped, and the quality and style of fast fashion have been criticized more and more; on the other hand, Taobao (tmall and Taobao) women's wear can compete with it with its powerful supply chain and high degree of data. That is to say, consumers can buy more fashionable and updated products than Zara at a lower price.

This has further made Zara and the shopping mall no longer achieve mutual success. Because it occupies the location of the shopping center, but there is no expected number of customers. In addition, today's commercial projects are more in favor of personalized experiential format, and the standard store type of fast fashion brands is gradually losing its attraction.

Obviously, Zara opened its flagship store at this time, although it was a bit "pragmatic", it was intended to do it. In the face of the drastic changes in the fast fashion market in China, opening such a big store in Wangfujing, where the rent is high, Zara does not value flat effect, but hopes to break the stereotype of fast fashion stores, aiming to provide a shopping experience different from that of traditional stores. Its store image is more like a luxury store, the space is more flexible and spacious, and its goods are placed properly "left blank", and "speed" is no longer the first pursuit of the brand.

In addition, the stores closed by Zara are those small stores which have no advantage in geographical location. They do not contribute much in sales and influence, and can not give customers a new shopping experience.

Summary:

Regarding the adjustment of Zara's stores in the future, the relevant person in charge of China's Public Relations Department of INDITEX has disclosed to the media that INDITEX plans to maintain the total number of stores in the world at 6700-6900, with larger area and higher quality, including 450 new stores, which are equipped with the integration technology of * *. At the same time, INDITEX plans to strengthen the investment and development of online platforms for some young brands in the Chinese market, such as Bershka, pull & Bear and Stradivarius.

At the same time, the layout of the code adding line has become the future development direction of INDITEX group. INDITEX will accelerate and expand its high-tech digital transformation strategy in the global market. It will invest 1 billion euro to support online platform business and 1.7 billion euro to upgrade integrated store platform. It is estimated that the proportion of online sales will rise from 14% in 2019 to 25% in 2022.

It seems that Zara opened its Asian flagship store in Wangfujing, on the one hand, is to make a "slow" transformation for the promotion of brand culture, which has the effect of image display and demonstration; Second, because of its low price of fast fashion positioning and special store experience, it no longer provides consumers with a single consumption, and its cost performance ratio is much higher than that of peers, which also provides a sample mode for Zara to expand stores in the future.

However, the domestic clothing retail industry is changing. In the future, whether Zara will win back or be replaced by its reform? We can only wait and see