Inditex Focuses on Sustainability in Crowded Fast Fashion Space

With sales continuing to climb, Zara-owner and fast-fashion giant Inditex is focusing on sustainability.

The retailer said Wednesday (Dec. 14) that it saw sales climb by 19% for the first nine months of 2022 versus the same period last year, attributing that growth in part to its sustainability initiatives.

“Sustainability is a key part of Inditex’s strategy,” CEO Oscar Garcia Maceiras said during an earnings call.

Among the initiatives on that front is Zara Pre-Owned, a new service the Spanish company launched in the United Kingdom in November. It allows consumers to prolong the usable life of their clothing by either having it repaired, reselling it or donating it.

The company also recently debuted a product called The Laundry, which it bills as the first detergent designed to prevent textiles from shedding microfibers, thus reducing consumers’ carbon footprint and extending the life of the fabric.

The first nine months of the year saw the company’s store and online sales grow “significantly” — although Inditex did not provide specific numbers for online sales — while the retailer opened stores in 30 different markets, most of them Zara locations.

Inditex’s growth is happening as the fast-fashion space becomes more and more crowded, with retailers like Shein reporting revenue that put it in competition with Zara and H&M, PYMNTS reported in October.

Shein is expected to generate $24 billion in revenue for the year. It also launched its own resale platform in October called Shein Exchange, which can be accessed through the Shein app and lets customers buy and sell used Shein clothing.

And this week saw reports that Shein is considering a shift to a marketplace-style platform that would let other retailers sell their products along with Shein’s own offerings.

“The marketplace platform makes available a range of additional merchandise and shipping options, and we expect it to result in increased customer engagement and satisfaction,” Shein said in a memo to investors, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

Asked during a call with analysts and investors if Inditex would consider launching a similar marketplace, Maceiras said that was not part of the company’s strategy, without providing further detail.

PYMNTS noted Monday that the marketplace trend has gained a following across sectors, such as Walmart inviting sellers in India to use its Walmart Marketplace to sell to customers in both the United States and Canada.

PYMNTS research has shown that of the 38% of consumers who think of themselves as “deal-chasers,” 44% made their most recent purchases using an online marketplace.

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