Zara debuts Thailand e-store, Vietnam and India to come

By

Benjamin Fitzgerald

Published
Mar 28, 2017

Zara will unveil a new online platform in Thailand on Tuesday, ahead of e-commerce entries into Vietnam and India, later in the year.

The Spanish apparel powerhouse informed shoppers of the online platform via a pop-up note on Zara’s mobile app. The Thai website is designed to be user-friendly, supported by all web browsers and with prices matching those found in store.

The site offers free shipping regardless of purchase amount, with a delivery time of three to six working days, with a choice between home delivery or click-and-collect at selected Zara outlets. Thai shoppers can pick up items at any Zara store except at the Siam Paragon location.

Zara recently brought its online platform to Singapore and Malaysia earlier this month, and will bow a similar website in Vietnam in the next few weeks, as well as in India in the second half of this year.

The company also it plans to open a 5,000 square-metre flagship Zara store in Mumbai, which will be its largest store in India. Inditex, Zara's parent group, currently has 21 stores in India.

In 2017, Inditex plans to continue its strategy of opening flagship stores in top shopping districts and absorbing its own small outlets into nearby big stores. Moreover, Inditex will open up a new Zara flagship store in Madrid on April 7, which will become the brand’s largest in the world by size.

In the year to 31 January 2017, Inditex recorded net profit of 3.15 billion euros, representing a 10% increase over the previous year. Group sales amounted to 23.3 billion, up 12%, while EBITDA was 5.08 billion, compared with 4.69 billion a year before.

The group created more than 9,596 jobs worldwide in 2016.