HOW THE FASHION GIANT TOOK OFF

THE Spanish retailer has developed a rapid factory-to-shop formula that keeps its astonishingly broad client base happy. Unlike most High Street chains, Zara stores — there are 63 in the UK — change their stock twice a week when store managers put in an order to the firm’s HQ. This means that store managers can tailor the shopping experience based on individual sales data. It is said that in 2015 a lady walked into a Zara store in Tokyo and asked for a pink scarf but the store did not have any. Other customers were asking the same in other outlets. Seven days later 500,000 pink scarves were on sale in stores globally. They sold out in three days. Store managers pass feedback from customers to managers in A Coruna, in Spain’s sparsely-populated Galicia. Then, 700 designers work up ideas into prototypes. Patternists are so speedy, they can create a sample in less than two hours. Commercial and design teams then choose what to put into production before store managers put in their orders. Instead of focusing on producing each style in vast quantity, Zara focuses on the number of designs — producing roughly 12,000 different products every year. If something sells out — and if someone like the Duchess of Cambridge wears it, it invariably does — there is always something new right behind it. After products are designed, they take around ten to 15 days to reach the stores. Zara, founded by Amancio Ortega Gaona and Rosalia Mera in 1975, relies heavily on word-of-mouth as a form of advertising.