Zara: A purple cow in fashion retail

Today, Inditex has become a group company with a market capitalization of more than US$8 billion. It ranks first in Spain and ranks third in the world in clothing retailers with 2,116 stores in 52 countries. It owns nine clothing retail brands Zara, Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Kiddys Class. Zara is the most famous of these nine brands and is the flagship brand of Inditex.

As the flagship brand of Inditex, Zara was founded in 1975. It is both a clothing brand and a chain retail brand that specializes in Zara brand clothing. Currently, Zara has more than 680 stores in 50 countries around the world, and it is growing at a rate of around 70 every year. Although the Zara brand chain accounted for only one-third of all Inditex's stores, its sales accounted for about 75% of the company's total sales. In terms of popularity, Zara is far inferior to its main competitors H&M (Hennes & Mauritz) and Gap, but in terms of operating performance, Zara clearly has the upper hand. Comparing the business performance of Inditex with H&M and Gap, it is easy to understand, as shown in the following table:

However, people really started to pay attention to Zara and Inditex. In 2001, Inditex sold 26% of its shares publicly. The amount of subscriptions on the day of issue exceeds 26 times of circulation. Only this one raises funds for the company. Billion euros. At that time, Zara’s sales accounted for 80% of the company’s total sales. Inditex stocks can be sold so hot that it can be so favored by investors, mainly thanks to Zara, which, apart from having better profitability than its competitors, more importantly, the sustainability of its business model. .

"Commercial Review" refers to Zara as "Dell Computer in Fashion Industry"; Some people also commented on Zara as "Swatch for Fashion Industry"; Harvard Business School considers Zara to be the most valuable brand in Europe; Wharton Business School Zara, a globally renowned business school such as the Spanish IESE Business School, regards Zara as a model for future manufacturing.