As somewhat of a shopaholic, I’ve spent my fair share of time in Zara. The clean storefronts, the constantly changing inventory, and the trendy styles entice me to walk into the store almost every day being in Spain. Video screens showing their fashion shows and models in intense colors entice you. Zara is one of the most successful fashion brands worldwide and its influence stems right here from Spain.
Video screens with colorful visuals which match the clothing make the shopping experience more exciting.
The store feels extremely luxurious, but when you look at the price tags, you realize how affordable it is. Understandably, the brand is so popular by the packed lines and bustling customers inside that stay ever loyal to the brand.
Walking into their Placa de Catalunya location is very impressive.
The success began when Amancio Ortega opened a dress-making factory called Inditex in 1963. He realized that he could start a retail market for lookalikes of higher-end products, which lead to him and Rosalía Mera opening Zorba in 1975 in the small town of Galicia in the northern part of Spain. Obviously, the store didn’t stay as Zorba though, since there was a bar down the street with the same name which confused customers so they changed the name to Zara.
In 1977, their headquarters were established in Arteixo, Spain which is where they remain today. Establishing the headquarters here saved the town financially. Zara had stores across Spain in the most popular shopping districts by 1983. Within 10 years, the store boomed in popularity and grew to have 500 employees. Their first logistics center reaching 10,000 square meters opened in 1984. Inditex was established as a conglomerate in 1985 to organize all of the companies that branched from Zara under one company. Zara went international by opening a store in Porto, Portugal in 1988. In 1989, Zara came to America with their first store on Lexington Ave. in New York City. After expanding to markets around the world, the company joined the stock exchange and went public in 2001.
Ortega was so successful with Inditex that he actually overtook Bill Gates for a brief period as the world’s richest man. He remains the richest man in Spain and Inditex is the second largest Spanish company by market capitalization behind Iberdrola.
Today, Inditex has about 7,400 stores, 170,000 employees and is in 96 worldwide markets. Other popular Inditex stores are Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear, Oysho, and Bershka. Zara has over 2,000 stores with almost 13,000 employees.
The success of the brand is its timeliness in designing and manufacturing clothes to keep up with the latest trends at a better quality than their fast-fashion competitors. Ortega was wise when he capitalized on the fact that fast fashion was not popular yet. His distribution system was crafted so the workers could quickly respond to market trends. The design, manufacturing, and distribution process he made was a quick process that he called “instant fashion.” He invested in information technology to stay ahead of trends. Their turnaround process is impressive and makes them able to stay up to date with current trends. The stores receive new products twice a week and once a new design is created, it hits the stores in 10 to 15 days.
Zara sells women's, men's, and children's clothing so they do not limit their product to one gender. Their most important customers are women, but the brand offers a variety of clothing so they do not segment to a specific demographic.
There are options for every style, with neutrals, patterns, and colors so everyone can find something they like here.
They even have a home goods brand. Zara Home launched in 2003 and focused on the home textile department, which is a relatively underrepresented category with competing affordable home brands. Zara home has an assortment of furniture and décor and over 500 stores worldwide dedicated to home. The home products are not manufactured as often as Zara clothing, as home trends stay constant for a longer time than clothing trends.
Their core values are beauty, clarity, functionality, and sustainability. Zara creates lower quantities of a particular style so their items are more desirable. They also don’t have large losses if a style is not popular because they make low quantities of their items. If a style sells out, a new one is already ready to take its place.
Elizabeth Underwood spent a summer working in the Zara store in Dallas and said it was a great experience. “The work was a bit more demanding than small boutiques I’ve worked at because of how often we cycle inventory, add new styles in, and re-layout the store.” Every few days the store changes product location to keep the customer interested. She said the training was very simple for her since she worked in retail before. The only difficult part was taking orders from her managers so frequently to change where items were around the store.
“I never brought home much of a paycheck because I spent a lot of it at work,” she laughed. “It’s hard when there’s always something newer and better and I want it all.”
The company’s mission statement is to “Give customers what they want and get it to them faster than anyone else.” Their vision statement is “To contribute to the sustainable development of society and that of the environment with which we interact.” Zara is a leader in the fast-fashion industry as well as uses eco-friendly tactics like decreasing energy consumption in their stores and using recycled elements, so they hold to both their mission and vision statement.
Inditex has a program called Closing the Loop for repairing and reusing old garments. Inditex stores make it easy for customers to give away used garments by having space in some of their stores to drop off clothing. The goal for all Inditex companies is zero waste by 2023, so no longer sending anything from Inditex factories or stores to landfills.
Zara’s top competitors are Fast Retailing, UNIQLO, H&M, and Reformation. Zara, Uniqlo, and H&M all have over 2,000 stores. Zara is the youngest of the three but has full ownership of its supply chain so they have a more rapid product turnover. Zara also hopes to be perceived as “higher-end” than their competition but remain at a similar, affordable price point.
Zara sells accessories as well.
I was able to speak to worker Daniel Macias who was putting clothes back at the time I asked him about his experience working there. “Busy day!” he said.
“It’s great, we get good benefits, manageable hours, and meet many new people,” Macias said.
Like any retail job, there are ups and downs to working at the store. Of the most popular fast-fashion brands, Zara’s commitment to sustainability and elegance while being affordable makes it a great brand to shop and work at. I will always love Zara for its sustainable choices and affordable luxury. You can understand the commitment to the brand from stepping into any of their stores, but knowing the history makes you appreciate the company to a deeper extent.
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