Spain-based clothing store Zara opened its new 28,000-square-foot retail store in Westfield Old Orchard Shopping Center in Skokie last week. Two furniture stores and a miniature golf business will also open in the remodeled former Lord and Taylor space in the mall.
The new Zara space occupies two floors and is more than double the size of Zara’s previous location on the north side of the mall, which is closing permanently, according to a spokesperson, Amaya Guillermo. The new store offers more collections of clothes, including baby clothes, and technological advances for online shopping.
“Our customer is a customer that likes fashion in a global way… these trends are the same as our customers in Skokie, but at the same time in Tokyo, Madrid, or in Rome, so it’s a customer that likes global trends,” Guillermo said.
The new store has a white interior with floor-to-ceiling windows. According to Guillermo, Zara has been doing white box concept stores for about two years but is constantly evolving the architecture and style of its stores over time. The former Zara store, which opened in 2008 and was the first in Illinois, was current to the styles of the time, she said.
Zara’s previous store had 13 fitting rooms, and the new location has 25 fitting rooms for women, 10 for men and three for children. The 25 employees at the former location will be transferred to the new location, Guillermo said, and 59 jobs were created to employ 84 people at the new location.
The women’s section is 60% bigger, divided into customer types, and offers different styles of clothing. Store Director Dardane Gjota, said the store is also focused on providing set pieces that put together an outfit. “If you love a shirt, a dress, or this collection, then we have a head-to-toe outfit that we can complete without leaving this room,” she said. The section will also include accessories like bags and purses.
The store also has an app that is unique to the location. Customers will be able to use it to book fitting rooms, purchase items at self-checkout lanes, and pick up items within two hours that would typically take two to three days to be delivered. Certain items will also have RFID tags sewn onto them, which is meant to help both customers and employees locate them.
The men’s and children’s section of the store is on the second floor and is also split into sections and styles. The girls’ portion of the children’s section is bigger than the boys’ and also makes up higher sales, according to Guillermo. The back of the children’s section also offers baby clothes, which are available online but only sold at select stores, according to Gjota.
Zara is one of seven brands owned by the conglomerate Spain-based group Inditex, which also owns Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti and Stradivarius. The group has reported net sales growth from $28.2 billion in 2019 to $35.9 billion in 2023, according to its website. According to Guillermo, Zara keeps much of its operations in-house, from designers to logistics.
“We are always looking at what the customer wants. We are always looking at their feedback, and then we demand more product for that section because we know that this product is what the customer is looking for when they walk into our stores,” Gjota said.
Other incoming developments at the former Lord and Taylor site include Arhaus, Pottery Barn and Puttshack. In February the mall’s owner also announced that it would break ground in 2025 for $100 million in transformations that would create hundreds of new luxury apartments with a town square and spaces for outdoor concerts, farmers markets and other events.
