Zara Gift Card: Our Expert Opinion
Today, we are taking a closer look at ZARA, the iconic fashion brand from the Inditex group. Known for its innovative strategies, ZARA quickly launched a gift card program that is now ranked 3rd in terms of search volume on search engines. Based on this observation, we found it worthwhile to review their gift card program and identify both strengths and areas for improvement. We will break down our analysis into six key areas: visibility of the program on search engines and the brand's website, the ordering process, payment, delivery, card usage, and B2B distribution or third-party platforms.
ZARA: Mixed visibility on search engines and its website
Gift Card Visibility on Search Engines
When searching for "ZARA gift card," the Spanish fashion and accessories brand appears in the first position—good news. However, it’s important to note that only the page dedicated to physical gift cards is referenced, even though the brand offers at least two other pages related to this service.
Another point is the optimization of "title" tags and "meta descriptions." The current title tag is "Gift Card — Money," and the meta description is empty. For the page title, the brand could be clearer, such as "ZARA Gift Card Service" or "Give a ZARA Gift Card." As for the meta description, it’s an ideal space to describe the service’s benefits: "Order a customizable ZARA gift card in just a few clicks, valid in all stores and online."
Additionally, it’s interesting to note that a question accordion appears in Google search results with questions like "How does the ZARA e-gift card work?" or "How to use the gift card?" To make the most of this tool, it would be wise to develop an SEO-optimized FAQ section that answers these common questions from users. This would help strengthen customer trust and provide reassurance to those interested in buying a gift card.
Gift Card Service Visibility on the ZARA E-Commerce Website
On ZARA’s e-commerce website, the gift card service is placed in the main menu. This is a great feature for quickly finding the service. However, when it comes to searching for the service using the internal search engine, we’ve identified a few issues. ZARA offers two separate pathways, with two different pages for physical gift cards and e-gift cards. When searching for "gift card" in the search bar, only the e-gift card appears in the results. This is a missed opportunity for consumers who want to order a physical card.
A Solid Gift Card Program with a Few Areas for Improvement
ZARA has cleverly divided the customer journey by offering a landing page that consolidates all its gift card services, including both physical and digital cards. Two additional tabs are dedicated to activating a gift card and checking the remaining balance, which is practical for the user.
Overall, the page remains minimalist with only links leading to the different gift card journeys and services. This highlights an area for improvement. Since this page doesn’t rank well in search engines, ZARA could enhance it by highlighting the benefits of the service and emphasizing the differences between the e-gift card and physical gift card options.
The pages dedicated to physical and digital gift cards are designed with the same minimalist approach, going straight to the point. It seems relevant to add more content, such as a FAQ section, to improve the understanding of visitors and boost search engine ranking.
Disjointed Purchase Journey
Well-Executed Reassurance Elements
For our test, we decided to order a digital gift card. ZARA is clear on delivery times, where the card can be spent, exchange policies, returns, and the card’s setting options. The buyer knows all the essential details and can proceed with confidence. Upon further investigation, we noticed that accessing more information redirects to the homepage of the Help Center. Since ZARA has a dedicated section for gift cards, it would be more efficient to redirect users there to save time.
A 3-Step Journey
On the page, we can choose the amount between €20 and €250 in €5 increments. This remains flexible, although some brands go to the exact euro, even cents. Next, we select the visual for the card. Only 3 simple, elegant visuals are available. While minimalism is part of ZARA’s identity, a gift card is still a gift. Buyers appreciate being able to choose visuals tied to major events (Christmas) or micro-moments (birthday, farewell, etc.). ZARA can easily blend its identity with specific events.
To make its program more dynamic, big brands often refresh their visuals each year, similar to new collections.
After selecting the visual, we must add the gift card to the basket and choose the delivery method, even though we haven't entered the recipient’s name or a personalized message yet. It’s only at this point that we can proceed with personalization (message, name, email). This approach was a bit confusing during our test because it overloads the experience with two pop-ups (one for the delivery method and one for the personalization details) before we can add the card to our cart. This creates a disjointed journey, which could impact conversion rates.
A potential improvement would be to consolidate these 3 interfaces into one, handling all aspects directly from the product page.
An interesting feature:If you purchase a gift card via the mobile app, you can add a personalized video, though we couldn't activate this feature during our test.
ZARA’s Physical Gift Card
For the physical gift card, ZARA offers simple yet effective visuals and gift boxes in various colors. A nice touch is that each color has a short introductory video. This is a great way to immerse the customer in the brand’s universe and get a sense of the final result. But like the e-gift card, the journey is disjointed.
The Payment Step: A Critical Step for Conversion
This is a crucial step that should be refined and simplified to minimize friction. It’s even more critical for gift cards.
It's important to remember that a gift card is part of the brand’s services. It’s a payment method that offers the full brand experience, not just a product. At ZARA, the user must create an account and add the card to their cart before completing the purchase. The journey remains smooth, but we see a significant room for improvement.
We recommend creating a dedicated journey that allows buyers to order a gift card in just a few clicks without requiring them to create an account or add the card to their cart.
There are three main reasons for this choice:
- Accounting reason: The gift card is not a product. Treating it as such creates complexity in its accounting management.
- Buyer behavior: Gift card buyers are typically not the brand’s regular customers. Therefore, the journey should be as frictionless as possible, without forcing them to create an account.
- Conversion and revenue boost: This approach dramatically increases conversions and revenue by making the purchase easier and reducing friction.
Agile Gift Card Delivery at ZARA
E-gift Card Delivery
By email or messaging serviceZARA stands out by offering delivery via "your preferred messaging app" in addition to the classic email. Which messaging apps? All of them. ZARA creates a temporary link (valid for 60 days) to allow the recipient to claim their card. After this period, the buyer will need to generate a new link. The only issue is that we had to search for this information ourselves. Adding a link to the help center explaining this feature would allow buyers to make a more informed choice.
For email, delivery occurs within a maximum of 30 minutes. For messaging services, no data is available.
A positive aspect: Regardless of the delivery method, a card preview is available. The buyer has everything they need to complete the purchase.
Another positive element: ZARA asks for confirmation of the recipient’s email before finalizing the transaction, which reduces customer service requests due to typo errors
Physical Gift Card Delivery: Multiple Choices
For physical gift cards, there are multiple delivery options: in-store pickup, at a pick-up point, or home delivery. For extra security, gift cards remain inactive during delivery. The buyer will need to activate the card via the website upon receipt.
Test of ZARA's e-Gift Card Delivery
15 minutes. That's the time it took from payment to receiving the digital gift card. This is relatively long compared to the market's usual instant delivery. One of the main advantages of an e-gift card is its immediacy. Anything over 5 minutes is considered too long. However, ZARA did promise a maximum delivery time of 30 minutes, so they were within their time frame.
That being said, the buyer does receive all the necessary emails: a validation email with a clear CTA to track the order and a confirmation email with the exact time and date when the recipient will receive the gift card.
The recipient also gets an email containing the gift card, with a simple and effective subject line, “A gift from Emilie,” including details on how to spend it and the terms and conditions.
Gift Card Registration
The recipient receives a minimalist PDF with just the necessary information for spending. They can save it on their smartphone or PC. If the buyer wants to print it and give it in person, the PDF lacks a bit of substance.
For a practical and gift-worthy PDF, we have two recommendations:
- Visibility and readability: Currently, to read ZARA's PDF on a PC or phone, you need to zoom in multiple times. Whether printed or viewed on a digital device, the gift card details should be visible with just one click, especially the barcode and redemption code.
- Personalization of the PDF: In addition to essential elements like the amount, barcode, code, terms and conditions, where it can be spent, and the expiration date, it’s important to add the visual, personalized message, and the recipient’s name. The layout should make it easy for the buyer to fold the printed page in half or quarters to make it ready for gifting. Some large brands include a small guide on how to print and fold the gift card PDF, which makes a big difference.
Spending the Gift Card
At the payment stage, when selecting the payment method, there is a "gift card" box. Then, the usual steps follow like with a regular credit card: entering the number, CVV, and expiration date.
Unless the recipient has already registered their gift card via their mobile app. ZARA allows the card to be added to their app by scanning the code from the PDF. It would be ideal to allow adding the card to the mobile wallet, but ZARA's app is so well-designed that this step isn’t necessary.
ZARA: An Area for B2B Development
B2B Ordering Journey
In our research, we couldn't find a dedicated ordering path for businesses (Employee Benefits, companies, small businesses, etc.) on ZARA's website. The question is: is it relevant for the brand?
Absolutely. ZARA has a strong brand reputation and high sales volume, so it would be a missed opportunity to ignore the B2B aspect. ZARA could also expand distribution through third-party platforms, which they don't seem to fully capitalize on yet.
Reselling of the Gift Card
ZARA doesn't seem to be present on third-party platforms. This is a huge missed opportunity. In fact, one-third of the revenue generated through gift card programs comes from distribution. Considering that a gift card program typically accounts for 5% to 7% of a brand's revenue, we can easily see the growth potential for a brand like ZARA, which is the third most searched gift card in France.
There's no doubt that ZARA would be successful in distributing its gift card across multiple platforms.
Why consider distribution? To create a new revenue channel and acquire new customers. By distributing on employee rewards platforms, ZARA could quickly reach all employees in France and allow them to redeem their rewards in the fashion industry, an attractive sector.
Conclusion: ZARA's Gift Card Program Has Strong Foundations
ZARA has solid foundations (reassurance elements, delivery system) and offers some innovative features like instant messaging delivery.
However, there are two main areas for improvement:
- The purchase journey is a bit disjointed. The customer expects to complete all customization steps before payment and expects to be able to buy the gift card without creating an account.
- B2B and multidiffusion need to be prioritized as they would have a significant impact on the performance of ZARA’s gift card program.
Before diving into distribution, we recommend that ZARA automate the flow with distributors and third-party platforms to avoid workload bottlenecks on time-consuming tasks. Choosing an aggregator would be ideal.
Final Rating: ZARA gets a 13/20. The program has a strong foundation and plenty of room for improvement, which will allow the brand to quickly reach excellence.
