Today, international fashion runway “knockoff” retailer, Zara, will begin selling its clothes online to US customers. With free standard shipping to all 50 states, the option to pick-up ordered clothes at a nearby Zara store, as well as free exchanges and returns, Zara will push one step ahead of other budget-friendly fashion darlings like Forever 21 and H&M.

Ironically, the site launches one day before the Lollapalooza of fashion retail events across the world: Fashions Night Out.

Beginning in New York City, Fashions Night Out is now an international event where stores of all price points and ambiances get the chance to incorporate selling tactics that high-end retailers most commonly utilize. Pumping attendees full of free champagne and hors d’oeuvers is the first way, while bringing brand, fashion-world or media-related celebrities into the store is another. Both are used in hopes that customers will actually purchase something — which almost never happens — and is more of a popularity contest, if anything. What’s more important than being popular in America? Nothing. (See reality show megastars Kim Kardashian, Jersey Shore, Real Housewives, etc.)

Although Fashions Night Out is a strong attempt to revive brick and mortar businesses to their glory days, I believe the effects of this event, as years go by, will lead to an eventual change of how stores function in the future.