Berlin pilot launches as part of Zalando repair pledge
Online fashion retailer Zalando has launched a pilot exercise to help its customers wear shoes and other items for longer.
Its home city, Berlin, is the place where the trial is taking place. Zalando is using its logistics expertise to pick up from customers’ homes footwear and other products that need mending and take them to small local repair shops. It has called the idea Care & Repair. The items need not have come from Zalando.
It has worked in partnership with a London-based start-up called Save Your Wardrobe, whose technical platform is at the heart of the project. Zalando has said it intends to roll it out in Düsseldorf too.
Before launch, it conducted research to gauge customers’ willingness to repair items and keep wearing them. It found that 58% of people said they thought it important to prolong the life of their shoes and clothing but that fewer than half of them “act on this intention”.
Its survey engaged 5,000 people in Poland, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and France. The main findings were that there is a growing desire across all markets to use mending and proper maintenance as a way of prolonging the life of products.
Zalando has explained that this effort is part of its aim of applying the principles of circularity to extend the life of at least 50 million items by 2023.
