Fashion retailer Zara is to expand its secondhand service across Europe this year.
In a statement shared with the AIM Group, citing its last results presentation, Zara owner Inditex quoted its CEO Óscar García Maceiras as saying that it expects “to roll out the platform in other key Europeans markets like Germany and France in 2023, as well as in Spain.”
Launched in November, Zara Pre-Owned is to be expanded across European markets including the Netherlands, reported Ecommerce News EU. It currently operates only in the U.K.
Financial infrastructure platform Stripe announced that Zara had selected it as payments partner for the retailer’s extended used clothing marketplace.
The service will “expand across other European markets in the second half of 2023,” said Stripe.
“Stripe Connect enables Zara to embed Stripe’s global payments platform directly into the Zara Pre-Owned marketplace, offloading all payments-related requirements onto Stripe, while keeping the customer experience fully Zara branded,” said Stripe, which is headquartered in San Francisco and Dublin.
“Sustainability in retail is finally receiving the attention it deserves to help protect our fragile planet. We’re thrilled that Zara has chosen Stripe as they lead the way,” added Eileen O’Mara, head of global sales at Stripe.
Zara is one of a growing number of apparel retailers seeking a piece of the resale pie, as the highly-polluting industry looks to burnish its green credentials, particularly among environmentally-conscious younger shoppers.
Some 62% of Gen Z and Millennials say they look for an item secondhand before purchasing it new, and 46% of the same cohorts consider the resale value of an apparel item before purchasing it, according to ThredUp’s 2022 Resale Report.
Zara is owned by Spain-based Inditex, the world’s biggest “fast-fashion” group.
Its secondhand resale service was intended to help make the business more environmentally friendly, with no initial aim of monetization.
“At this stage, this platform is exclusively conceived as a tool to help customers extend the lifetime of their clothing and take a more circular approach,” said Paula Ampuero, Zara’s head of sustainability, quoted by The Guardian, at the time of launch.
This article was updated to include comment from Inditex.