Zara & Their Consumers

Evaluating Zara's website by using the Consumer Online Customer Experiences, proposed by Susan Rose and Neil Hair.

Zara Logo

Today I will be discussing the consumer online customer experience that ZARA emulates to their consumers.

The fast fashion retailer, Zara is known to be the main brand for the world’s largest apparel retailer, Inditex group. It is a Spanish originated company that was founded in 1975.

The Inditex group states: ‘Zara has remained faithful to its core values, expressed simply in the same four key words that define all our stores: beauty, clarity, functionality and sustainability’ (Inditex.com, 2018).

As a consumer, when first opening the Zara site, I must agree that Zara does emulate beauty and clarity. And it very obvious why the brands high-quality products are desired all over the world. Their prices ranging from affordable to expensive, the site has its own special charm to it. The retailer emits a strong confidence from their website, they sell products to women, men, kids and TRF (Trafaluc, based for younger women who want bold and exciting pieces in their wardrobe).

I was very impressed by Zara. It made me want to purchase something from the very enticing site, and although I have bought clothes from Zara’s physical store in Canberra. I never purchased a product online.

So today, by using the elements proposed by Rose and Hair’s framework of Online Customer Experience, I will try to evaluate Zara and see if their values emit through their website.

Rose and Hair’s Framework, as shown below has eight antecedent’s elements that should lead to customer satisfaction or a re-purchase intention from the consumer. (Rose et al. 2012).

Rose et al. (2012)

The first antecedent is information processing. This is what the consumer knows about the brand prior from opening the website or making a purchase.

I knew that Zara was a top selling brand, and I had heard that the shipping was efficient and effective for the consumer. It opened doors for more sizes or colours, that the physical store might not have or ran out of stock for.

Perceived ease-of-use: how easy the customer can use the site. When opening up Zara’s home page;

1. the categories were out in the open and did not need to be investigated for

2. the search bar was easy to locate on the top right-hand of the screen

3. there was an enticing ‘join us and keep updated’, that made it relaxed to sign up.

4. there is also a chat available for consumers to communicate with the store.

Perceived Usefulness: what extent the web interface helps you to increase your job performance. In one of the categories, Zara has ‘Stories’. This page helped me to understand the current trends that were being followed and how a specific type of clothing or accessory would look in the real world and how to dress it up or wear it casually.

I found this improved my sense of style and allowed for me to focus on the products that I wanted to buy with great detail and stride.

Perceived benefits: the benefit that is derived from engaging with the brand or purchasing a product, specifically what the customer gains.

As a customer who signed up, I get notified of new trends and sales that the brand may have through email. The cookies on the Zara site understand my preferences that I have, which then lead me to receive ads and products that I might be interested in or recommended videos on my YouTube page that are partnered with the brand.

This allows for me to gain discounts for good quality products at a cheaper price, be aware of products that come back in stock and have a stronger and intuitive sense of fashion.

Perceived control: to what extent the consumer feels that they have the necessary infrastructure, resources and knowledge to be able conduct a certain transaction or use a certain system.

Compared to other sites, Zara gives me around about the same control;

- they allow me to filter through characteristics colour, size, price, collection and qualities.

- Join the committee

Skill: the level of skill in order to perform a certain transaction.

Although the brand is more of a high-end retailer, the website can be used by anyone who has basic information technology and social media skills. Which include a significant amount of people considering how important technology is in our current day-and-age.

Trust Prosperity: the extent the consumer trusts the brand, what they feel that the shopping site is trustworthy.

Perceived risk: the what extent the consumer feels that the transaction is risky

I am going to combine trust property and perceived risk because, it can be believed that they are connected.

When purchasing an item they have, all types of payment method; Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, UnionPay, JCB, PayPal, IN and ZARA. Although, the brand has the quality and goodwill of a high-end retailer, I automatically assume that the company has my best interests in keeping my details safe, but as an individual consumer I never buy a product if PayPal or equivalent is not offered.

And because they do offer Paypal, it makes me trust the site more with my purchase, and I will remember that when I come back to the site for future purchases.

Enjoyment: what extent you enjoy browsing the website or purchasing from the website and why a consumer would come back.

I enjoyed the site. I liked the way it the clothes caught my attention and freedom I had to search online. And I would definitely buy clothes from the website.

Reference List:

1. Inditex.com. (2018). Zara - inditex.com. Available at: https://www.inditex.com/about-us/our-brands/zara (Accessed 25 Aug. 2018).

2. https://www.zara.com/au/

3. Rose, S., Clark, M., Samouel, P., & Hair, N. (2012). Online customer experience in e-retailing: an empirical model of antecedents and outcomes. Journal of Retailing, 88(2), 308-322