Hey local fashion gang. You want to know what you are going to be able to buy at the new Zara store when it launches in SA? Well take a look at this picture. That, my friends, is a small selection of what you will be able to buy. Soon. Right here in Sandton.
When we were at the offices last week we met the team focused on South Africa, together with the trend forecaster team, with whom they work super-closely. And here is the thing. We will not be waiting six months for the 'summer' trends. Oh no. We will get exactly the same trends that the northern hemisphere gets. Every week. Twice a week. Within three weeks of the trend being identified. Seriously. It will just be in different fabrics and with tweaks for the weather. Amazing, right? If this doesn't fundamentally revolutionise SA fashion and consumer expectations, I don't know what will.
And the stores will look like all the other stores in the world. Which all look like this one here, the pilot store, which is not a store at all but a staging area in the office in Spain. That's me there on the left, sandwiched between Chris Viljoen and Dion Chang. The other thing worth knowing about the stores is that they are eco stores. Although you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at them. But, like all new stores in the world, the Joburg site will get either gold or platinum certification for environmental sustainability — which takes into account both the running of the store and the impact on the staff and customers. It is properly impressive. And the only way forward.
While we were there last week, they took us through the seamless process that they follow which allows them to take a trend — fed into the system by the actual customers in the stores i.e. you — and turn it around and place the actual product you have asked for in all the stores around the world within three weeks. Yes. End to end three weeks into your local store. So here is the thing, peeps, if there is something you want, you HAVE to ask for it. If you just slink out of the store disappointed, you will never get what you want. In the Zara case, by asking for it, you get it. Boom.
These guys here are the buyers/country peeps who speak every day to the stores in the various geographic territories, feeding the information into the system that kicks off the three week process of design and development. They also take the repeat orders from the stores — like when that item you wanted desperately has already run out in store, get the store manager to phone her/his assigned guy at this commercial table, and get them to send some more. OK? It is that easy.
