Introduction
An entrepreneur Amancio Ortega launched the international clothing chain and fast fashion brand Zara in 1975. It focuses on fast fashion and provides apparel, footwear, accessories, cosmetics, and fragrances (Hayes, 2022). With a valuation exceeding $23 billion in 2021, Zara, among the rights held by Inditex, a worldwide fashion conglomerate that also owns Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius, and several others, considerably outpaces the rest (Duoyan, 2021, p. 202). Based on the statistics, Zara accounted for almost 17 billion euros, or around 68-70% of Inditex Group’s whole global revenues in 2021 (Lu, 2019). Its success is recognizable far beyond Spain as it is considered the second most valuable apparel brand in the world, only behind Nike.
Brand Showcase
The company’s subsidiaries, which are dispersed across the globe, account for a significant portion of its revenue. In 1985, the first store outside of Spain was established in Porto, Portugal. The company launched in the US in 1989, followed by France in 1990. It maintained a steady pace of growth throughout the 1990s, finally establishing its outlet in the British market in 1998. Over 3,000 people are employed by the UK subsidiary, which has 68 stores operating directly throughout Great Britain (Kunst, 2022). Gap and Hennes & Mauritz are a couple of Zara’s top competitors in the UK. Zara blends three key strengths, quality, fashion, and a competitive price approach, to establish a durable competitive advantage over its rivals (Zhang, Zhang, and Zhou, 2021).
Brand Online Presence
As Inditex, the parent company of the brand, Zara has social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Due to the significance of videos and images in the fashion industry, Instagram and Facebook are their leading social media platforms. Zara tends to publish product-focused content on every possible social media platform, giving the audience a sneak peek at their most recent items. According to Facebook’s demographic information, their fan base is primarily made up of young women.
The main brand, well-known worldwide is Zara. The number of people who follow Zara’s various social media accounts reflects the success of this store, which has locations all over the world. In 2021, Zara had more than 50 million Instagram followers, roughly 1.44 million followers on Twitter, and 3.09 million on WeChat, a popular messaging app among Chinese users (Statista, 2021).
One hundred ninety-five videos have been added to Zara’s YouTube account, with 106,000 subscribers and 48.3M views. According to speakrj.com, on December 2, 2022, it gained 1,000 new YouTube subscribers. On December 16, 2022, Zara YouTube Channel posted a single video, and between November 27 and December 16, 2022, its subscriber base climbed by 2,000.
According to reports, Zara produces over 40,000 designs, from which about 12,000 new ideas are specifically crafted and made each year (Ha, 2021). It takes only one week to produce a brand-new item and bring it to stores as opposed to the industry standard of six months. In about four to five weeks, the company can create a new brand and avail of completed products in its outlets (Ha, 2021). In just two weeks, it can redesign an existing brand. Considerable success in satisfying customer preferences is associated with shorter product life cycles (López et al., 2022). Zara is also repositioning its attention online due to growing competitive challenges from the retail internet market and will establish fewer but sizeable stores hereafter.
Zara.com has increased three spots in the last three months, from 276 to 194. Comparing this month to last, zara.com’s traffic has climbed by 23.66%. (Jung, Oh, and Kim, 2021). The top country last month contributing desktop traffic to zara.com was the United States. 31.47% of visitors to zara.com are men, while 68.53% are women. Most of the visitors are between the ages of 25 and 34 using desktop PCs. The audience for Zara.com is passionate about lifestyle, fashion, and retail.
Customer Journey and Traffic Share
Recent statistics show that many customer journeys start on social media. Despite the source, one of the most popular requests is the search for the nearest store. If customers want to buy online, they usually order right away on the website or social media. In addition, most of the traffic from the UK is from mobile devices. Zara’s unwavering commitment to the client is at the heart of the brand’s success and the heights it has attained so far. In the long run, Zara is putting more emphasis on digitizing every part of the purchasing experience for customers (Jiang, 2020). It is demonstrated by the use of “click and collect” at its major flagship stores, which enables shoppers to order products from the internet and collect them in-store, benefiting both Zara and the client (Gheorghe and Matefi, 2021). It is tremendously simple for the consumer, and it gives Zara much more quick information regarding inventory management and client inclinations for specific SKUs. This channel might function as an on-the-dot supply network if customers continue to favor this shopping mode, and Zara can, with immediate effect, assess and handle the data (Yin, 2022). This way, only the guaranteed quantity of goods to be sold at particular places may be manufactured and distributed by the company, essentially bringing its inventory to zero.
Marketing Strategy
For adequate and reliable marketing strategies, Zara should maintain a well-designed online store and spread the information about their mobile applications further. Several qualities could aid Zara in generating 25% of its sales via its digital platform. The top of these features is a robust supply chain that enables quick and international product delivery for digital clients who place orders from anywhere in the world (Seo and Suh, 2019; Yang, 2022). The second are well-designed stores, essential for drawing clients. Finally, the business may use its well-known brand in North America and Europe to retain its current clientele and draw new ones (Zara, 2022). Zara should continually concentrate on and grow this strategy to enhance its competitiveness (Costantini and Costantini, 2022). Consequently, rather than being developed alone, the digital sales strategy should work in conjunction with the whole sales strategy and include additional advertisements of Zara’s digital possibilities at the physical stores. Moreover, the YouTube account of the brand should be developed further to reach a wider audience.
Conclusion
Zara is the brand that is now one of the most popular and developing brands of fast clothing. The cost of each piece is affordable to almost all classes of the population, and the popularity in the UK is at a sufficient level. The number of stores and the overall success of the company are developing, predicting even more successful growth in the future.
References
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