Zara is the latest fashion brand to start closing retail stores across the globe due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has kept many shops closed since mid-March.
On June 12, the fast-fashion retailer’s parent company, Inditex, announced its plans to shut down between 1,000 and 1,200 brick-and-mortars over the next two years and divert resources into online sales strategies.
It’s not yet known exactly which Zara locations will be affected, but the closings will be “stores at the end of their useful life” and “whose sales can be recovered in nearby stores and online,” the company said their statement.
Under that plan, Inditex CEO Pablo Isla confirmed the company will “increase the online customer service teams and the dedicated packaging both from the specific online stockrooms and from the stores,” as well as offer customers “uninterrupted service no matter where they find themselves, on any device