Zara invests in new eco-efficient stores

When it comes to retail sustainability, Zara, leading brand of Inditex corporation, is striving to set the standard. From its humble beginnings in 1975, to owning 1.770 stores across the globe today, the brand has blossomed into one of the worlds

leading fashion companies. Now, Zara is taking their store image to the next level and living up to the brands philosophy of constant renewal.

Sustainability

is a driving factor in stores updated look

During the grand re-opening of the Zara store, on the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam, Chief Communications Officer, Jesús Echevarría shared the brands goal; to have one hundred percent of all existing Zara stores eco-efficient by the year 2020. Instead of opening new shops, Zara is focusing on refurbishing their existing stores and introducing a new, durable interior. Since 2007, Zara has opened and renovated more than 1,300 eco-efficient stores across the globe and shows no signs of slowing down. These shops save an average of 30 percent on electricity and 50 percent on water, in comparison to other traditional stores. Last year Zara invested over one billion euros in renewing and renovating their current stores, upgrading several of them to flagship stores. But why is Zara so invested on creating a durable, yet modern shop image?

Echevarría believes that the renewed shop image reflects and showcases the brands collections in a unique way, letting their consumers to interact with their products like never before. The renewed stores are all larger than before, not because Zara has expanded their collections, but because the added space allows customers to “appreciate the quality and architectural beauty of the store, as well as the collections they house.” The flagship stores respect and interact with the structural design of the historical buildings they are in, like the Zara on the Kalverstraat, which features the novel staircase and stain glass windows from the original building construction. All the refurbished shops follow a similar interior plan, featuring long corridors that run through the stores, with cubicle-like boutiques on each side to display the brands many collections and inspire their consumers to create new combinations. Echevarría explains how the stores follow four concepts, “clarity, functionality, beauty in simplicity and sustainability,” the foundation for the new shop image. The interior walls of the shops are given a textured look to reflect the earthy materials used to make the current collections. All the furnishings are made of eco-qualified wood or re-cycled materials. The indoor lighting, escalators and air conditioning inside the new flagship stores are all “intelligent,” only switching on when they are needed and cutting down on the stores electricity consumption. Echevarría shares that the first store that was renovated and given this new image was the flagship store in New York on Fifth Avenue and 52nd street in 2012. Since then, Zara has already refurbished their London stores on Oxford Street and Brompton Road with the new store image, and are currently in the process of renewing their shop at Gatwick Airport.

The new flagship store in Amsterdam is also striving to achieve a golden LEED certification, which is known as one of the most demanding ‘green building’ certificates in the world. American coffeehouse Starbucks and Zara were the first companies to introduce the LEED certification to the European market in 2010. In order to even qualify for one, retail buildings have to fulfill prerequisites, such as water efficiency and site sustainability and earn sufficient points. The higher the number of points awarded, means more ‘green’ the building is. The brands renewed store image is a reflection of their business strategy, to create and give its consumers “accurate fashion,” not “fast fashion.” Echevarría disagrees with the negative connotations that Zara has with “fast-fashion,” stressing that Zara strives to create quality fashion which follows current trends. Zara is perhaps one of the few retailers that develops its stores around their consumers changing needs, with every store worldwide carrying out daily analysis and store feedback between its workers and designers. Stores place individual orders twice a week, based on what their top-sellers are and what customers are asking for. This is why each Zara store sells different aspects of all the collections. “Every day is a new challenge, every day like the very first day when the first Zara store open in 1975,” Echevarría concludes, with Zara striving for constant improvement and renewal in order to stay on top of their game. This unique concept clearly works, with a global average of 17 visits per customer per year versus 3 visits per customer per year that similar competitors bring in.

Vivian Hendriksz