Spanish fashion and homewares brand Zara has put digital stores – where it is automating multichannel services such as collection – and sustainability at the centre of its strategy, the RetailX Top500 Brands D2C: Europe 2024 highlights.
The brand started life in 1975, when Arnacio Ortega opened its first shop in A Coruña, Galicia. Its first website was launched in 2010. Zara is now the largest brand in a wider Inditex group, alongside Pull & Bear, Stradivarius and others. The group has 5,962 stores and sells in 213 markets around the world. In full-year 2023 financial results, Inditex reported EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax and asset write downs) of €9.9bn (+13.9%) on turnover of €35.9bn (+10.4%).
Across the group, online sales grew by 16%, and accounted for 23% of retail sales. Store sales grew by 7.9%. Inditex mobile apps had 152mn active users during the year and its websites saw 6.5bn (+10%) visits in 2023. Its social media channels had 251m followers. Most Inditex sales are made in Europe – 14.8% in Spain and 48.7% in the rest of Europe. Zara net sales came in at €26.1bn (+10% year-on-year) and pre-tax profits at €5bn.
Oscar García Maceiras, chief executive of Inditex, said at the time: “Inditex’s performance in 2023 has been excellent. Our teams have been able to take advantage of the opportunities to keep growing profitably. We are investing to drive future growth and continue to offer an attractive remuneration to shareholders.”
In its 2023 full-year statement, Inditex set out its strategy thus: “The growth of the group is underpinned by the investment in stores, the advances made to the online sales channel and the improvements to the logistics platforms with a clear focus on innovation and technology. Sustainability is a key part of the strategy.”
A Zara Pre-Owned platform is now available in 16 European markets. Via the platform, shoppers can donate, repair or resell used clothing. A Sustainability Innovation Hub works with more than 350 start-ups on innovations such as making new materials made from textile waste.
In 2024, Inditex is holding live-streaming events in the US and UK, as part of plans to explore new ways to communicate with customers in order to improve their shopping experience. It is also investing €900mn a year in 2024 and 2025 in expanding logistics in order to underpin its potential for growth in the medium to long-term.
On its website, Zara links to its pre-owned service from home page navigation. Its website is mobile- first, with a focus on finding the right products from its range through search, navigation, and recommendations, offered throughout the customer journey. Shoppers can engage with the brand by signing up to its newsletter, following it on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, Pinterest and YouTube, or using its live chat service.
This company profile, authored by Chloe Rigby, is one of five in the RetailX Top500 Brands D2C: Europe 2024. It also looks at:
This new report explores how brands from around the world sell to shoppers in the 30 countries of the European Economic Area (EEA), plus the UK and Switzerland. We rank brands by footprint sizes and by performance in four value chains, which are designed to assess how brands build profitable businesses around the customer, the product, operations and capital.
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