Zara Plans To Roll Out International Online Shopping Platform

To bring its fashions to new markets, Zara plans to roll out a global online platform. With the launch, the retailer will expand its efforts to 106 new markets, Chain Store Age reported.

The new markets include many areas of Africa, such as Cameroon, Tanzania and Senegal. The internet platform is also coming to regions of Asia and the Caribbean. When it comes to languages, shoppers will be able to interact with the site in both French and English.

The retailer plans to have curated collections for its merchandise, along with a visual tour offering called “stories.” In addition, Zara plans roll out new offerings in its collections for men, women and kids two times a week. For payments, the company plans to support major credit cards, along with PayPal. Orders will be fulfilled from Zara’s Spanish online platform and orders will be in euros.

The news comes as Zara’s owner, and the world’s largest clothing retailer, Inditex, has announced that it will sell products from all of its brands online, it was reported in September. “We want to make our fashion collections available to all of our customers, wherever they are in the world – even in those markets [that] do not currently have our brick-and-mortar stores,” said Chief Executive Pablo Isla.

The full online catalog will be operational by 2020. Inditex also noted that it will be rolling out in-store pickup of online orders to all 96 countries where it operates a physical store. Apart from its best-known brand, Zara, Inditex is the power behind Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho and Uterqüe — a stable of stores that boast 7,500 physical shops worldwide. But Zara, the original fast fashion innovator, is now finding itself under fire from online-only firms that target their young and hip customer base.