Zara to offer its secondhand clothes service by October

Zara will introduce a new service for selling, repairing, or donating secondhand clothes in the United States by the end of October, aiming to extend the lifecycle of garments and reduce waste, its owner Inditex announced on Wednesday.

The ‘Pre-Owned’ platform, which began in Britain in November 2022, is already active in 16 European countries. Inditex has pledged to expand the platform to all key markets by 2025 as part of its broader strategy to minimize raw material consumption.

The service will be accessible through Zara stores, its website, and an app in several countries, including Spain, France, and Germany.

Zara has yet to release figures on the number of users for the service in existing markets. However, Inditex CEO Oscar Garcia Maceiras noted that Zara’s online platforms attract over 22 million visitors daily.

In addition to Zara’s efforts, other fast fashion brands, such as H&M, have also entered the resale market. H&M’s secondhand items are available in the U.S. via a separate website through a partnership with ThredUp.

Zara will also debut live shopping shows in the U.S. and other major markets, including Spain, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Britain, Ireland, and The Netherlands, in the coming months. Inditex reported that Zara’s weekly five-hour live shopping shows on Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese counterpart, have significantly boosted sales since their launch in November, according to retail analytics firm EDITED.