ARTEIXO – Spanish apparel retail giant, Inditex, has announced a 41 per cent jump in online sales for 2017. The company, which owns the Zara, Pull & Bear, Bershka and Massimo Dutti brands, says a tenth of its sales were online in 2017 – offering further evidence that fast fashion is steadily migrating away from the high street. Swedish competitor H&M has 12 per cent of sales online, while UK brand Next has 40 per cent online sales.
Inditex says that like-for-like sales, which excludes new store openings, were up by 5 per cent while net sales were up 9 per cent. Profits after tax rose by 7 per cent, representing a healthy €3.37bn on revenues of €25.34bn.
The company’s 88,000 staff globally will share a €562m bonus pot.
Inditex says that at the end of the financial year, it had 7,475 stores worldwide, a net increase of 183 after it opened its first stores in Belarus and launched Zara online sales in India, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.
German sportswear brand Adidas has also announced financial results which show a surge in online sales. Adidas’ overall sales rose by 15 per cent to €21.22bn, up from €18.5bn in 2016.
Operating profit was €132m in the final quarter of last year, but the group reported a net loss of €41m million after a tax hit of €76m.