Last week, Inditex, the world’s leading clothing specialist, launched a transactional website for its Zara chain in the US.

Last week, Inditex, the world’s leading clothing specialist, launched a transactional website for its Zara chain in the US. This is the company’s first ecommerce site outside of Europe and will offer free standard delivery to 50 US states.

Inditex currently operates just 49 stores in the US, and as such is still considered a niche player. The retailer stated that from now on, it will look to ecommerce to gain an edge over rivals, such as H&M, in a bid to cement itself in the hearts of US shoppers.

This represents a strategic turnaround for a company that has previously focused on an expansion strategy led by bricks and mortar growth.

It will be interesting to see whether, with its current minimal US estate, Zara has built up enough brand familiarity to entice US shoppers. If there is no store nearby in a particular state, how will shoppers know to shop at Zara online?

However, Zara’s ecommerce-based approach is not unknown for retailers. Gap, for example, is testing the popularity of its brand in countries where it has no store presence at all before deciding where to open sites in new markets.

The internet will provide Inditex with a low-cost method, without the high real estate costs, of dipping its toes into the markets across the US.

In the digital age, it has been proven that store openings can be scaled back, so long as there is a strong ecommerce platform to back this up. That said, Zara is unlikely to build a significant presence in the US via the internet alone.

Zara is following in the footsteps of fellow fashion players such as Topshop and Uniqlo by adopting a dual flagship store/online strategy of growth in the US.

In March of this year, Inditex acquired a 38,700 sq ft shop on Fifth Avenue in New York. The store is slated to become one of Zara’s most emblematic flagships worldwide, being located in one of the busiest shopping areas in the US.

The development of destination stores with all the fanfare that accompanies them is an excellent way of building an initial brand presence in a market that is both highly demanding and close to saturation point.

  • Aisling Balfe, analyst, Planet Retail. For more information contact us on:

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