Zara expands presence in Valencia with opening of new flagship store

By

Rocío ALONSO LOPEZ

Translated by
Roberta HERRERA

Published
Dec 3, 2022

The Inditex-owned retailer is proceeding with its restructuring with a new store opening in Valencia. As part of its commitment to offer larger spaces in which to display the brand's entire ready-to-wear offering, as well as its innovative technological services, Zara opened an impressive new megastore in downtown Valencia on Friday, December 2.

Located at number 4, Don Juan de Austria street, the immense space is housed in a building formerly occupied by the emblematic Boulevard Austria shopping center. Designed by the Galician brand's architecture team, the store features the brand's classic "white box" aesthetic, incorporated into the building while maintaining some of its existing details, such as the original façade's large windows, which bring plenty of light into the space.

Zara Woman and Zara Man stores, until now offered in two different stores located on the same street, will be integrated into a single 6,000-square-meter space spread over three floors, and 150 employees will be hired, including new recruits and workers who already have experience working in Valencia. The inauguration comes just a couple of weeks after the opening of Zara's renovated 3,000-square-meter space in the El Saler shopping center. In any case, the brand will keep its other downtown store on Colón street, its first Valencian point of sale established in 1985, which will now only sell the brand's womenswear offer.

In addition to selling its entire ready-to-wear range for women, located on the ground and second floors, children, on the second floor, and men, on the basement floor, the newly opened megastore presents exclusive Zara collections. Among them are the 'Athleticz' sportsline, its homewear offering, its latest collaboration with designer Narciso Rodriguez, and its 'Studio' collection created together with Karl Templer, as well as areas dedicated to footwear and accessories.

The store also features several exclusive areas. The new boutique distributes the 'Zara Beauty' cosmetics and makeup offer, becoming the first point of sale in the city with this service. In addition to offering its cosmetics line, which consists of a wide range of products for lips, face, nails and eyes, the store also has a refill point and a virtual try-on solution for the different cosmetics.

Other new features include its 'Lingerie' section, a concept that for the time being has only been developed in Zara's new store in Plaza España, Madrid, and in its large store in San Sebastián. Designed as a showroom, the intimate space, with an exclusive fitting room, offers the brand's lingerie products. The line includes underwear, pajamas and accessories, and until now was only available online. 

Designed in accordance with the efficiency criteria established by Zara, the space has heating and cooling systems as well as LED lighting specifically controlled to reduce environmental impact through the internal Inergy platform that centrally monitors consumption. As a result, the building is eligible for the gold category of the LEED sustainable construction certification.

As part of its commitment to technological innovations, the store has different customer service functionalities available through the 'Store Mode' feature in the brand's app. Among these services are an online shopping collection point with a robotic silo, capable of handling 1,500 orders; the 'Click & Try' tool, to reserve fitting rooms; 'Click & Go', to make purchases through the app and pick up orders in store; and 'Pay & Go', a service only available in the store in Valencia, which allows you to purchase items by scanning them and with no need to pass through the cash register.

To streamline the return process and improve the customer experience, two boxes have been designated exclusively for this purpose. In addition, visitors can also find self-checkout areas, a cardboard recycling area and an area for donating used clothing to Caritas.

Among Zara's most recent developments has been the opening of pop ups in Paris and Seoul to celebrate its second collaboration with Ader Error. The fashion retail chain founded in 1974 forms part of the Inditex group's brand portfolio, along with Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Pull&Bear, Oysho, Zara Home and Lefties.

The Spanish conglomerate, chaired by Marta Ortega, recorded a 25% increase in turnover in the first half of its current financial year, reaching 14.8 billion euros.