Zara Pre-Owned Expanding to More Than a Dozen European Countries

Jessica Binns
·2 min read

Zara‘s Pre-Owned platform will launch in more than a dozen new countries next week, bringing the sustainability-focused initiative to millions more customers.

Starting Dec. 12, the secondhand platform will be up and running in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. The development marks a rapid expansion of the Inditex fast-fashion brand’s circularity-driven play. Pre-Owned first launched in France in early September, before touching down in the United Kingdom on Nov. 3.

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Pre-Owned is where consumers can access a variety of circular options in several different ways. They can use the platform, available through the Zara app, mobile website and in stores, to donate goods for the benefit of local charities and organizations. Repair technicians sew on buttons, restore zippers, mend seams and offers similar services on Zara-branded garments, too. The resale component enables consumers to sell their Zara clothes, shoes and handbags to their peers, with the company handling the behind-the-scenes technology infrastructure.

Companies across the pond have urgent reasons to incorporate sustainable initiatives into their business models. Bloc-wide policy incentivizes fashion brands operating in the European Union to make resale, recycling and repair a central part of their offering and promotes durably designed goods that can power a circular, climate-neutral economy. H&M, Zara’s chief rival, has experimented with ways to offer pre-owned fashion. It’s spent the past couple years helping Sellpy, its resale partner since 2015, get its tentacles into dozens of European markets.

In the U.S., H&M inked a deal with Thredup earlier this year, instantly becoming the San Francisco-based resale platform’s biggest official program.

At Inditex, work is underway to reach long-term sustainability goals. A new partnership aims to match online Bershka shoppers with the best-fitting clothes and kneecap expensive returns. The Spanish giant also recently threw its support behind Renewcell and aims to cut emissions by using alternative ocean cargo fuels with Maersk and Repsol’s sustainable aviation fuels on flights operated by Atlas Air out of Zaragoza Airport. A Swiss group recently fingered Zara as one of fashion’s worst air-freight offenders alongside Shein.