How Zara wants to win the battle with Zalando

Fashion retailer Zara is starting home delivery from 2,000 shops worldwide. The fast fashion chain plans to integrate its entire stock, both online and offline.

Ship-from-store from 2000 shops

If an item is no longer available online but still is present in stores, it can be delivered directly to the customer from any store that carries stock. The ship-from-store service will start in 2,000 shops around the world by the end of this year, The Wall Street Journal reports.

This way Zara not only wants to serve customers faster, which is an important factor in the competition with online giants like Asos and Zalando, but it also wants to achieve better their control over stocks. By using the physical stores as a logistics hub, they also remain more relevant.

CEO Pablo Isla has indicated that the complete integration of the storage rooms in stores and online is a very important strategic point for parent holding company Inditex. Overstock in physical stores is big problem in the fashion industry, as H&M proved when it had to report a serious profit drop due to large quantities of unsold stock last year.