Zara has developed an elevated, tech-enabled retail experience which on Thursday made its U.S. debut at The Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards.
On Wednesday, WWD took a private tour of the 22,000-square-foot Zara store, situated on the third floor of the Hudson Yards mall on Manhattan’s far west side. The Zara store is an expanded version of the two-level, 18,000-square-foot Zara unit that opened when Hudson Yards launched in 2019. It now spans a single floor with two main entrances, and showcases Zara’s latest women’s and men’s collections.
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Gone are the escalators and the jumble of merchandise racks. Instead, there’s a cleaner, more contemporary, and warmer ambience marked by porcelain flooring created to emulate the refined, industrial aesthetic of micro cement; overhead directed LED spotlighting, wood fixtures, area rugs, leather sofas and virtually no signage though the denim area has digital displays. The store is designed with an easy flow of boutiques, each housing different day and evening clothes and accessories, from Zara’s more sophisticated ready-to-wear and tailored looks, to the brand’s trendy and casual styles. While each boutique exudes a different personality, there’s a cohesiveness to the overall space.
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There’s also innovative fixturing, including ceramic bases or modules replicating the look and texture of bricks in women’s and in the footwear and accessories section. The gray metallic fixturing in the denim area projects a youthful aura, and there are oversize mirrors, 8.8 feet by 5 feet, for head-to-toe viewing.
The emphasis on outfitting is appreciable, in particular with matching sets such as a fluid-fitting viscose blouse paired with a wide-legged trouser, priced $79 for each piece. There are also linen outfits, with blazers and wide-leg pants with elastic waistbands, at a similar price point. Knitwear is also highlighted. Yet the stock keeping unit count on the selling floor is restrained, so for example, in footwear, a style will be displayed in just one size, or in fashion, not every color of a style is displayed, adding a boutique feel to the selling floor — and that’s where the technology comes in.
With RFID, Zara has been ahead of the game. The retailer began implementing RFID in 2013 and by 2015 it was rolled out to the entire collection, enabling quick locating of items in a specific color or size that a customer saw on the Zara website and wants to see in the store. The RFID enables Zara associates to locate an item wherever it might be in the store, in a stockroom, in another store, or online. With the Zara app, a digital map of the store can be accessed on a cell phone, indicating where a requested item is located. The RFID readers are overhead. Zara has been “obsessed” about integrating RFID across its shopping channels, a spokesperson said.
In a spacious service section, there are automated parcel dispensers to pick up orders made online. Only a personal QR code is required to access a package. At any given time, up to 500 packages can be accommodated by the system. Customers can place online orders for in-store pickup within two hours.
There is a self-checkout area, which is easier to use than what is often found at a pharmacy or mass merchant. Shoppers just drop all of the items together in a bin, the price of the garments and the total pops up on a screen, they pay by card or cash, and receive a printed or email receipt or find the receipt in their Zara app profile. An associate is present if assistance is needed. There also are manned cashier points.
Making returns is also an automated process. Customers with their QR code accessed on the Zara app, scan the code to see on a screen all the products purchased online in the last 30 days. They click on the screen the items to be returned, receive a sticker label, package the items, and place them in a bin that automatically accepts the returns. The customer receives a credit in three to five days.
Fitting rooms are rigged with technology. When the light above a fitting room curtain is on, it means the room is vacant. If the light is off, there is someone inside. The store has 20 fitting rooms for women and ten for men, several more than in the original setting.
“The store offers our customers the latest technological advancements that seamlessly integrate physical and online shopping including an online order pickup point with an automated storage area and automatic online return points,” the spokesperson said. An online order in the store’s storage area can be accessed via a customer’s personal QR code on the Zara app which keeps an online record of all their purchases.
Additionally, Zara in Hudson Yards has a recycling area for its cardboard boxes containing items that were ordered. There is also a drop-off point to donate clothes, from any brand, not just Zara, to extend the useful life of pre-owned garments.
Last month, Zara’s elevated retail experience first appeared at the flagship in Nanjing, China. The format has since emerged in a handful of locations in Spain, Switzerland, U.K. and Germany, as well as at Hudson Yards. The openings in Cambridge, Mass., and La Brea, Calif., around the end of May or early June; and in early June at the reopening of the flagship being overhauled in The Grove in Los Angeles will sport the new look.
Zara operates a total of 103 stores in the U.S., including Puerto Rico, and has 1,700 stores operating in 98 markets around the world. Many, if not all, of the elements seen at the Hudson Yards store will be incorporated in new or renovated stores going forward. For about five years, Zara has been opening stores with greater square footage, enabling the entire collection to be presented on the selling floors, while also offering greater service. The company is known for its fast supply chain and rapid inventory turnover.
Given the new format and the ongoing rollout of new stores and renovations, Zara’s parent Inditex is looking to the future with confidence following a strong 2024, with sales up 10.5 percent at constant currency to 38.6 billion euros. At reported exchange rates, sales grew 7.5 percent. EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, rose 8.9 percent to 10.7 billion euros, while net income in the 12-month period was up 9 percent to 5.9 billion euros.