When it comes to renewing the wardrobe, although it is becoming more and more popular to consult websites to buy clothes online, there are people who prefer to leave stores as they have always done. But the reality is that the queues at some shops can be a bit exasperating. And to speed up this process a bit, Zara has implemented its Pay&Go system.
It is a system that will allow us to shop at Zara very soon without having to go to the checkout, neither to pay nor to remove the alarms. We will take the clothes we want, pay for them with our mobile phone and go home. Something that seems futuristic but is about to arrive.
What is the Pay&Go system?
Pay&Go is a system that allows you to scan the clothes you want to buy directly from the Zara app on your phone. You can also pay for them with the same mobile phone, and in this way you can leave the store without having to go to the checkout or queue at any time.
Queues at the Zara checkout have always been one of the big drawbacks of the store, so avoiding them will likely incentivise sales at the popular Inditex store.
How will we remove the alarms?
One of the reasons why right now it is necessary to go to the checkout when we buy at Zara is to remove the copper alarms that are attached to the clothes to prevent theft. And this is a question that many users ask themselves. Will we have to remove the alarms ourselves? What if we do it wrong and end up tearing our clothes? Don’t worry, none of that will be necessary.
The Pay&Go system has a system that will ensure that the alarms are not attached to the clothes, so it will not be necessary to remove them.
RFID Radio Frequency Alarms
The system that will allow us not to have to go through the checkout to remove the alarms is the RFID radio frequency alarm system.
These alarms mainly consist of a radiofrequency sticker that can be removed as soon as the product is scanned with the mobile phone. In this way, it will not be necessary to attach it to clothing or deactivate it with a special device. This system is already used in many clothing stores for self-checkouts, and will be fully implemented at Zara by next summer.
How will we pay for the purchase?
To pay for your order without having to go to the checkout, you will use the Zara app on your mobile, in the same way as if you were making an online purchase.
Thus, we will have to use one of the payment methods available in the application, such as credit cards and other payment systems such as Google Pay. When you’ve scanned all the products you want to pay for, all you have to do is select the payment method you want and confirm the payment. The purchase will be made the same as if we had made it at the checkout.
Will we be able to pay in cash?
One of the problems with Zara’s Pay&Go system is that it does not allow you to pay in cash, as it is designed to pay from your mobile phone.
Therefore, if you don’t have an account in a bank that supports Google Pay, Apple Pay or Samsung Pay, your options will be either to enter your credit card details in the Zara app or to continue paying at the checkout. Because of course the boxes will continue to exist, Pay&Go is just one more option for those who want to buy in a faster way.
When will Play&Go be available?
Although some tests have already been carried out, the store’s idea is that the possibility of using the Pay&Go system will be extended throughout 2024. And by 2025 we will be able to opt for this option in all the brand’s establishments, so that it is no longer necessary to pay per box when we go to buy our favorite garments in a store of the brand.
Therefore, if you are one of those who prefer to go to physical stores but get desperate in the queues, you have very little time left to forget about them.
Is it possible to pay now with the Pay&Go system?
At the Plaza de España store in Madrid
Zara has begun testing its Pay&Go system, which will gradually be rolled out to all its stores. And for this, as expected, it has chosen the Plaza de España store in Madrid, the largest Zara store in the world that the company has taken as its reference establishment. If this is the store you go to to make your purchases, you can pay directly with your mobile phone and leave there without having gone to the checkout. On the other hand, if you buy elsewhere for the time being, you will have to wait until it is established elsewhere.
At self-checkout
Most of Zara’s stores already have self-checkout checkouts where we can de-alarm and pay directly for our products. We could consider that it is a hybrid between the Pay&Go system and the traditional cashier, because we would still go through a cashier but the rest would be done by us. But the queues at this type of box are much shorter than at traditional ones.
Is Zara the first retailer to apply this system?
Although Zara is one of the first chains to opt for a mobile payment system without going through the checkout, it is far from the only one. At Decathlon we can find a very similar system, although for the moment it is still necessary to go through a self-checkout to scan the items and pay directly. But the goal of speeding up the queues so that we don’t have to despair in them has been met. Everything seems to indicate that this is the future of shopping, and that traditional checkouts will soon become a vestige of the past.
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