Zara extending fast-fashion sensibility to home goods

Spanish retailer Inditex SA that operates over 2,050 Zara stores in 88 countries is extending a fast-fashion sensibility to home goods. Almost 12 years after starting Zara Home, the company is pushing to have the design stores everywhere the clothing store operates.

Zara Home opened with four stores in Spain in 2003 and now has 420 locations worldwide, including new outposts in Hungary and South Korea. According to Inditex, 26 Zara Home stores opened in the nine months ended October 31, a 6.7% increase from a year earlier. Sales at Zara Home have about doubled since 2009, growing at a faster pace than all of Inditex’s brands including Zara, Massimo Dutti clothing stores and a fashion accessories and jewellery chain.

“They are creating a market. It’s very aspirational. It’s about convincing you that if you have a green towel and a blue towel that now you need a red towel. You create needs for consumers that they don’t actually have. Basically, they sell you a lifestyle. And this strategy is gaining momentum as Zara Home’s competitors try to catch up,” observes Cruz del Barrio, head of home and garden research at Euromonitor.