Besides boosting its online sales, Zara has been updating physical shops to integrate digital technology. The brand launched online sales in Brazil, Indonesia, Serbia, Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Israel, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates. Plans are to go online in Colombia, Ukraine, South Africa, and the Philippines.
Despite becoming one of the world’s most successful fashion brands by being faster and more responsive to shoppers than most of its competitors, Zara finally launched e-commerce only in 2010. The brand has been under pressure to innovate as customers change how they shop and a crop of ultra fast, online competitors rises up.
Sales at Inditex, Zara’s parent, grew seven per cent in the six months through July, a rebound from the three per cent it recorded during the same period last year, at the time marking Inditex’s slowest sales growth in more than a decade. Inditex’s margins, which indicate profitability, are dragging lately. But sales at stores and on e-commerce operating at least a year grew five per cent with positive like-for-like growth across all geographical areas, across all concepts and in both physical stores and online. Net income also grew ten per cent.
