Zara’s move onto online is likely to generate a great deal of interest, which will include praise and criticism, as the world’s largest fashion group Inditex finally embraces the world of online.
Many would say that this embrace comes a good two or three years too late as the model of selling clothes online seems to be well and truly proven.
However they are not alone in moving late to the party; Gap only went live at the end of last month and H&M is going live in the coming weeks.
It is a big opportunity for Zara, with only 65 stores in the UK it is not as widely avanilable as some of its competitors and if it is executed well could be a really strong revenue stream.
However there is already some criticism of the site and this morning there is talk all over social network sites about its teething problems. Internet explorer seems to be struggling with the site and its mobile site has already been down.
Initial problems are always quite common at first; even the online experts can get it wrong. However people will be expecting far more from Zara as the polished operator that it is in delivering goods to customers in stores, it will need to have the same execution online.
With H&M going live to subscribers next week it has the chance to really challenge Zara for customers. Its announcement today that it will be collaborating with French designer Lanvin will also create a great amount of buzz around the brand with a video launching a few weeks before the collection goes into stores showing off the range. It has also been showing teaser trailers before the announcement today.
In this way H&M has really understood the power of multi-media and social networks which were ablaze with guesses about who the new designer collaboration would be.
If it can translate this understanding to its transactional offer it could come up top in the fight for the big fashion giants to win market share online.
No comments yet