Something is changing in Inditex. And it is already very noticeable in your accounts. While the textile giant has closed one in four establishments in Spain since 2019, its digital strategy has triggered online sales to exceed 10,000 million euros for the first time, according to its last Financial results.
The context. Inditex is in full and deep transformation of its business model, drastically reducing its physical presence while enhancing its digital channels.
In the last six years has closed 25.5% of its stores in Spainbut far from affecting their results, total sales have grown by 36.5% in the same period.
Why is it important. The Spanish fashion giant is rewriting its own rules, demonstrating that fewer stores do not mean less sales if the online channel focuses well.
That online channel already represents 26.3% of the total business, exceeding for the first time the barrier of 10,000 million euros, until reaching 10,163 million in 2024, 12% more than the previous year. Meanwhile, physical store sales grew only 5.9%.
In figures:
- During 2024, Inditex opened 257 establishments in 47 markets, but closed 129.
- The year ended with 5,563 points of sale compared to 5,692 of 2023.
- Its app is already used by 218 million users and its websites received 8.1 billion visits, 10% more than the previous year.
- The company closed the year with total sales of 38,632 million euros, 7.5% more than in 2023.
What’s happening. The group is betting on concentrating their activity in less stores, but larger and strategically located, without losing total commercial area. At the same time, he has strengthened his digital ecosystem in that physical environment with innovations such as the elimination of physical alarms or the payment without a box.
- Your new technology Soft tag or “soft alarm”, already implemented in all Zara stores, improves the customer experience by eliminating traditional alarms, which generate greater friction.
- A pilot project in four Spanish stores will allow purchases to any point of the establishment, without going through a box.
- Personnel can identify garments through technology RFIDcreate virtual baskets and charge with mobile devices.
The background. The Inditex strategy combines the selective closure of stores with the technological modernization of which it maintains. I have planned investments of 1.8 billion euros in 2025, mainly aimed at optimization of commercial space, technological integration and the improvement of online platforms.
Deepen. Inditex’s vision shows that the future of retail is not in a purely online or exclusively physical model, but in the perfect integration of both channels. According to his CEO, Óscar García Maceirasit is an “integrated model” where both channels are feedback, seeing “growth opportunities in both sales channels and markets.”
Despite the growth, Inditex shows signs of deceleration. In the first five weeks of 2025, their sales grew only 4% compared to 10.5% of the previous year, causing a 7.5% drop in its price The day of the presentation of results, its worst decrease since 2020.
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