Zara parent to begin in-store mobile payments from September
Zara’s parent company Inditex is to begin rolling out in-store mobile payments in its home market of Spain from the autumn, its chairman and chief executive Pablo Isla revealed at its AGM yesterday.
This new service will be made available within the online apps of all eight of the group’s retail brands (Zara, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterqüe), as well as via a new Inditex app, InWallet, which shoppers will be able to use to pay for purchases made in any of the group's stores in Spain.
In both instances, the service will enable online and offline receipts, which will eventually eliminate the need for paper receipts. In addition Inditex says, the new service “aims to significantly simplify the purchase and returns process”. Customers will be able to activate the service directly from the online app, securely adding the payment cards they want to use.
The app was developed in-house by Inditex and forms part of the group's initiative to continually upgrade technology to improve the overall customer experience. The group is currently rolling out RFID technology across its Zara stores, which is on track for completion by the end of the year and will be extended to other group brands next year, Isla said.
Isla also reported on Inditex’s Environmental Strategy Plan, which has been updated to a new version for 2016-2020 (the previous version ran from 2011-2015).
He said the group had made significant steps in improving traceability across its supply chain from raw materials to the garment’s end of useful life. There had been an increase in the use of sustainable raw materials and more sustainable “wet” procedures (dying and washing). On the retail side, its eco-efficient store model had been rolled out to 3,700 of its 7,000 stores.
Moving forward there will be a focus on initiatives such as garments’ end of useful life. In September, Zara will implement a scheme for free at-home collection of used clothing when delivering online orders. This pilot test, which is being conducted in collaboration with the Spanish charity Cáritas and transportation firm Seur, will initially trial in Madrid with the aim of gradually introducing the scheme all over Spain.
In addition, Inditex will install between 1,500 and 2,000 garment collection containers in Spain's main cities, also in collaboration with Cáritas. The charity will sort the clothing to further the garment's life through its distribution channels or allow for recycling for the development of new textile raw materials. Inditex will donate €3.5m over two years to this project.
