Zara Plays Catch-Up with Online Shoppers

Spain-based Inditex, owner of the Zara chain, may be the planet’s largest clothing retailer, yet it’s no world-beater when it comes to online commerce. Inditex Chief Executive Officer Pablo Isla, who has overseen a big store expansion in Asia since taking over six years ago, is out to change that. Last September, Inditex launched a shopping site for Zara in Spain, the U.K., Portugal, Germany, Italy, and France. On Sept. 7, it will start accepting online orders in the U.S., featuring such items as $79.90 Zara superskinny jeans aimed at Zara’s target market of teens and young women.

Inditex has long used purely promotional websites to draw attention to its Zara product lineup as well as other company-owned chains such as Bershka and Massimo Dutti. Its Facebook page has nearly 10 million fans, and Inditex introduced a smartphone app more than 18 months ago that allows consumers to browse new clothing arrivals. However, selling goods online, something the Gap has been doing for more than a decade, is only now becoming a key part of its strategy to expand sales in the U.S. Inditex has about 50 Zara stores vs. the 200-odd outlets Swedish rival Hennes & Mauritz (better known as H&M) has opened in the states so far. “Zara’s move online in the U.S. is overdue—it’s the largest online apparel market in the world,” says Sucharita Mulpuru, an e-commerce shopping analyst at Forrester Research. The “Web is a great strategy for them. It’s much cheaper with their nationally recognized [Zara] brand to launch a Web store than to invest in real estate in 50 more malls in the U.S.”