Zara UK Customers Offered In-house Swap, Mend and Donate Service

Shoppers walk past a Zara Store on Oxford Street in London, Britain December 17, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo
Shoppers walk past a Zara Store on Oxford Street in London, Britain December 17, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo
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Zara UK Customers Offered In-house Swap, Mend and Donate Service

Shoppers walk past a Zara Store on Oxford Street in London, Britain December 17, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo
Shoppers walk past a Zara Store on Oxford Street in London, Britain December 17, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo

Zara said on Friday it will launch an in-house service for British customers to sell, repair or donate second-hand clothes, moving the Spanish brand into a growing part of the market.

The platform, to be launched on Nov. 3, will be available through Zara stores, its website and a mobile app.

It is the first time Inditex (ITX.MC), the fashion group that owns Zara, has offered a service to resell its products. The company said the initiative would contribute to the reduction of waste and the consumption of raw materials, without clarifying if it would expand the service to other markets.

The Zara Pre-Owned platform brings in-house the success of second-hand Zara clothing sales on other online platforms and among shoppers on social networks such as Instagram, Reuters reported.

The resale space will be organized by product categories, with detailed information for each item including current images provided by the seller and original product information provided by Zara, the company said.

Zara is following other fast fashion brands such as its main competitor H&M (HMb.ST) in offering products for resale at a time when the global second-hand apparel market is growing.

The global second-hand clothing market is estimated at $71.2 billion in 2022, according to a Future Market Insights report published in September.

Future Market Insights expects the market to grow by 14.8% a year in the next decade as people embrace the environmental benefits of using second-hand clothes.

Zara already offers customers the option to donate its clothing to charities in several markets.

Zara customers in Britain will also have the option repair their garments from any season, either in-store or applying online.

Inditex has 100 stores in Britain, including 60 Zara shops.



France Fines Shein 40 Million Euros for Misleading Discounts

FILE PHOTO: A view of a Shein pop-up store at a mall in Singapore April 4, 2024. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A view of a Shein pop-up store at a mall in Singapore April 4, 2024. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo/File Photo
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France Fines Shein 40 Million Euros for Misleading Discounts

FILE PHOTO: A view of a Shein pop-up store at a mall in Singapore April 4, 2024. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A view of a Shein pop-up store at a mall in Singapore April 4, 2024. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo/File Photo

France's antitrust agency said on Thursday it had fined China-founded fast-fashion retailer Shein 40 million euros ($47.17 million) for alleged deceptive business practices including misleading discounts, following a nearly year-long probe.

The agency, in charge of consumer protection as well as competition, said Infinite Style E-Commerce Co Ltd, which handles sales for the Shein brand, had misled customers about discounts, and that the company had accepted the fine, Reuters reported.

Under French regulations, the reference price for any discount is the lowest one given by a retailer during the 30 days preceding the offer. Shein infringed that rule by not taking into account previous offers, and sometimes increasing the price before applying a discount, the agency said.

It said its investigation showed the company "deceived consumers about the authenticity of discounts they could benefit from."

The probe, conducted across thousands of products on Shein's French site between October 1, 2022 and August 31, 2023, found 57% of advertised deals were not, in fact, offering a lower price; 19% had less of a discount than advertised; and 11% were in fact price increases.

In a statement, Shein said the antitrust agency had informed Infinite Style Ecommerce Co Ltd (ISEL) of breaches related to reference price and environmental regulations in March last year, and ISEL had taken corrective action within the following two months.

"This means that all identified issues were addressed more than a year ago," Shein said, adding that ISEL was committed to complying with French regulations.