With over €27 billion in sales in 2021, the Spanish Fast Fashion Empire, Inditex, which comprises eight sister brands, has grown thanks to a strategy of expanding its flagship stores in exclusive locations around the globe. Its largest brand, Zara, contributed over 70% of the group’s revenue. The country that contributed the most to the fast fashion Empire sales was Spain, with over 15% of its revenues.
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Inditex business model
Inditex is the holding that controls a set of brands, among them, Zara, one of the dominating brands in the fast fashion industry. In 2017, Inditex comprised eight brands:
Zara.
Pull&Bear.
Massimo Dutti.
Bershka.
Stradivarius.
Oysho.
Zara Home.
The holding, Inditex, continued to focus on commercial initiatives to grow the value of each brand, expand its stores worldwide, and build up its e-commerce platforms.
Let’s quickly overview each brand part of Inditex Holding.
Zara is a brand part of the retail empire Inditex. Zara is the leading brand in what has been defined as “fast fashion.” With almost €20 billion in sales in 2021 (comprising Zara Home) and an integrated retail format with quick sales cycles. Zara follows an integrated retail format where customers are free to move from physical to digital experience.
Zara is by far the largest brand in the group, representing over 70% of the group’s net sales.
With its massive flagship stores worldwide (Madrid, Venice, Mumbai, and many others), Zara created a large, recognized brand in the fast fashion industry.
The company also extended its online presence in Southeast Asia and launched http://www.zara.com in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and India.
Pull&Bear
Pull&Bear generated €1.87 billion in revenue in 2021, compared to €1.42 billion in 2020 and €1.97 billion in 2019.
Pull&Bear, with over €1.8 billion in net sales in 2021, Pull&Bear represented almost 7% of the group’s net sales.
The company has also opened up new flagship stores worldwide (like Rue de Rivoli in Paris, Ermou in Athens, and One World in Bangkok).
Massimo Dutti
Massimo Dutti generated €1.65 billion in revenue in 2021, compared to €1.27 billion in 2020 and €1.9 billion in 2019.
Massimo Dutti made over €1.6 billion in net sales in 2021, representing about 6% of the group’s net sales.
The company expanded with its new stores in Valencia and Milan.
Just like Zara’s flagship stores, Massimo Dutti positions itself in exclusive locations but with a minimalist interior design to convey a different style than the sister brands.
Bershka
Bershka generated €2.18 billion in revenue in 2021, compared to €1.77 billion in 2020 and €2.38 in 2019.
After Zara, Bershka is the largest of the sister brands in sales in 2021.
Indeed, the company made over €2.7 billion, representing almost 8% of the total group sales.
Like its sister brands, Bershka collaborates with influencers to enhance its brand awareness.
Like the campaign with the Italian rapper, Fedez (Fedez for Bershka).
The company also expanded its operations by opening pop-up stores in New York and Rome.
Stradivarius
Stradivarius made over €1.8 billion in 2021, representing about 6.7% of the group’s total sales.
Like its sister brands, the company has inaugurated a new flagship store in Barcelona.
Oysho
With a turnover of €600 million, Oysho represented over 2% of the group’s net sales.
The Spanish clothing retailer of women’s homeware and undergarments expanded by bringing its store to Barcelona, Madrid, Milan, Doha, Moscow, Paris, Tunisia, Istanbul, Dubai, and Bali.
Inditex values and key partners
Inditex group core values can be summarized in:
1. Strong customer focus.
2. Modesty.
3. Self-reliance.
4. Non-conformism.
5. Teamwork.
6. Creativity.
7. Diversity.
8. Innovation.
The principal partners of the group are:
Employees are considered as any person who works for Inditex Group stores, offices, or logistics centers.
Customers, as anyone who purchases a product sold by Inditex Group’s eight sister brands.
Suppliers as companies that are part of the Inditex supply chain.
Community, as all people or entities that are part of the context of Inditex.
Shareholders as any individual or entity that owns Inditex Group shares.
Inditex follows an integrated model, where the customer journey is driven across several channels.
Still, with a continuous dialogue, from store to online channels, Inditex creates multiple touchpoints with its brands.
Key Highlights
Inditex: A Spanish Fast Fashion Empire with over €27 billion in sales in 2021.
Zara: The leading brand in “fast fashion” with almost €20 billion in sales in 2021. It is the largest brand in the Inditex group, contributing over 70% of the group’s revenue. Zara follows an integrated retail format, allowing customers to move freely between physical and digital experiences.
Pull&Bear: Generated €1.87 billion in revenue in 2021, representing almost 7% of the group’s net sales. It has opened new flagship stores worldwide.
Massimo Dutti: Generated €1.65 billion in revenue in 2021, representing about 6% of the group’s net sales. It expanded with new stores in Valencia and Milan, positioning itself in exclusive locations with a minimalist interior design.
Bershka: Generated €2.18 billion in revenue in 2021, representing almost 8% of the total group sales. Bershka collaborates with influencers to enhance brand awareness and expanded operations by opening pop-up stores in New York and Rome.
Stradivarius: Made over €1.8 billion in 2021, representing about 6.7% of the group’s total sales. It inaugurated a new flagship store in Barcelona.
Oysho: With a turnover of €600 million, Oysho represented over 2% of the group’s net sales. The Spanish clothing retailer expanded by bringing its stores to various locations worldwide.
Inditex Core Values: Strong customer focus, modesty, self-reliance, non-conformism, teamwork, creativity, diversity, and innovation are the core values of the Inditex group.
Principal Partners: The principal partners of the group are employees, customers, suppliers, the community, shareholders, and the environment.
Inditex Integrated Model: Inditex follows an integrated model with multiple touchpoints for customer engagement, both in-store and online, creating a continuous dialogue from store to online channels.
Zara is a brand part of the retail empire Inditex. Zara is the leading brand, with over €18 billion in sales in 2018 (comprising Zara Home), and an integrated retail format with quick sales cycles. Zara follows an integrated retail format where customers are free to move from physical to digital experience.
Slow fashion is a movement in contraposition with fast fashion. Where in fast fashion it’s all about speed from design to manufacturing and distribution, in slow fashion, quality and sustainability of the supply chain are the key elements.
Fash fashion has been a phenomenon that became popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, as players like Zara and H&M took over the fashion industry by leveraging on shorter and shorter design-manufacturing-distribution cycles. Reducing these cycles from months to a few weeks. With just-in-time logistics and flagship stores in iconic places in the largest cities in the world, these brands offered cheap, fashionable clothes and a wide variety of designs.
The Ultra Fashion business model is an evolution of fast fashion with a strong online twist. Indeed, where the fast-fashion retailer invests massively in logistics and warehousing, its costs are still skewed toward operating physical retail stores. While the ultra-fast fashion retailer mainly moves its operations online, thus focusing its cost centers on logistics, warehousing, and a mobile-based digital presence.
Real-time retail involves the instantaneous collection, analysis, and distribution of data to give consumers an integrated and personalized shopping experience. This represents a strong new trend, as a further evolution of fast fashion first (who turned the design into manufacturing in a few weeks), ultra-fast fashion later (which further shortened the cycle of design-manufacturing). Real-time retail turns fashion trends into clothes collections in a few days or a maximum of one week.
SHEIN is an international B2C fast fashion eCommerce platform founded in 2008 by Chris Xu. The company improved on the ultra-fast fashion model by leveraging real-time retail, quickly turning fashion trends in clothes collections through its strong digital presence and successful branding campaigns.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
