This new Zara hack means you'll never be annoyed at out of stock products again

We all love a good Zara shopping hack, from knowing the best times to shop new items to when the sales start. We even appreciate the little things that make shopping just generally a bit smoother.

Take this latest one for example, which I noticed when shopping the Black Friday sale last week. You know how annoying it is when something sells out? Well now Zara has introduced a solution to this.

Next to the out of stock size on the product, you can now search for similar products, meaning you might just end up with something you like even better. That will take the sting out of it a little bit.

It also works if you've landed on an item you like, but it isn't quite right for you, since the algorithm brings up lots of similar items.

I tested it out on a black party dress that was sold out in my size, and came up with plenty of gorgeous alternatives.

This little widget is now available on all items as far as I can see, so you could literally spend hours trawling the Zara website to find the item that's perfect for you. Basically like an online personal shopper.

This does seem to have replaced the 'email me when in stock' feature, so while it's made it trickier to be notified of new stock, at least it forces you to broaden your sartorial horizons a little bit.

Penny Goldstone

Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.

Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).

Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.

However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.

Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.