Zara launches its extremely long-awaited on the net buying provide these days in only six European countries: Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and the UK. The Americas, Asia and past will must wait. Anything that brings extra choice for the consumer is, I believe a excellent factor and, most of all, it signifies that the United Kingdom shopper does not need to deal with Zara in-store customer service any much more.

It is a peculiarly British Zara issue it appears. I by no means have a problem in New York, along with the Paris & Barcelona Zaras are chaotic but always helpful. I was so gobsmacked at the level of service offered by the changing room staff at the Bond Street Zara that I tweeted my outrage.

(Laden with nine bulky items, (that’s three over their limit), other procuring and my handbag, the staff refused to hold a coat and two other pieces for me to try on afterwards, demanding I return them towards the shop floor as ‘it made their staff area untidy’. When I pointed out I intended to buy the coat they insisted I go to the really significantly end of the store to leave it with my name at the till — the until with a line of over fifteen people — and then come back to try on my clothes. Instead I dumped it, draping it over a rail of Ts in full view of the fitting room. Apparently this was acceptable as it wasn’t ‘messing up the staff area’. Insanity.)*

Two hours & a dead Blackberry battery later I got home and checked my Twitter feed: it was almost pulsing with indignation: the screen grab above shows maybe a fifth of the indignant tweets from Zara shoppers, many who had braved the Bond Street store, and who had found it a miserable, stroppy experience.

I went into Uniqlo on Oxford Street afterwards, a haven of smiling, welcoming, chirpy, nothing-is-too-much-trouble staff and wondered why Zara had to make it so difficult.

Which all implies that as considerably as I am concerned, Zara on the internet can only be a excellent thing. Not least because Zara’s owner, the Inditex Group, uses a fast fashion model with super rapid turnover which indicates stock flies out of retailer the moment it lands. At least there’s a chance of getting one’s sticky mitts on desirable pieces now.

Of course there’s going to be a dilemma with returns for Inditex — on the net has a high percentage of them — and that won’t mesh with a fast fashion policy, which relies on getting stock out to the floor and selling through as quickly as possible. If stock starts reappearing 30 days later that’s going to balls up their sales flow.

The site itself is as simple as it comes, and it is rather refreshing that they’ve done away with chatter about each piece. There’s a plain description, say ‘high-neck silk blouse’,and that’s it. The zoom function is superb and there are several detail views of each piece. However you can’t shop a look — if a blouse is shot with a skirt, you can’t link through to that skirt if you are in the blouse section. Overall it is functional and easy to use. Let’shope they put those key must-have pieces on-line.