Inditex E-Commerce Sales Soar

LONDON, United Kingdom — According to an estimate released this week by Credit Suisse, Inditex, the Spanish company that owns 'fast fashion' giant Zara, will achieve online sales of over 600 million euros in 2013, almost double that of 2012, the results of which are set to be announced next week.

The company, headquartered in the Galician city of Arteixo, became a global e-commerce force with the opening of Zara’s online store in 2011.

According to Credit Suisse, in the year 2012 (from February 1, 2012 to January 31, 2013) Inditex’s online business will amount to 343 million euros, close to 2.5 percent of the company’s overall turnover, estimated at 13.793 million euros for 2012.

Meanwhile, Uniqlo, owned by Tokyo-based Fast Retailing, which launched an e-commerce site in the US, last October, building on its existing online presence in Britain, China and Japan, aims to generate a full 20 percent of its American sales via e-commerce. At the time, Shin Odake, CEO of Uniqlo’s US division, told WWD: “Judging from the market, I felt that 20 percent is a reasonable target.” At the moment however, Uniqlo operates e-commerce sites in only six countries, while Zara’s customers can shop online in over 20 countries.

Stockholm-based H&M lags its rivals, currently operating e-commerce sites in only a handful of European countries, including Germany and the UK. The retailer has invested heavily in a US site, but its launch has been postponed until this summer, significantly behind its initial deadline of early 2012.

Editor’s Note: This article was revised on 8 March, 2013. An earlier version of this article misstated that online revenues were close to 25 percent of Inditex' overall turnover for 2012 . They were, in fact, close to 2.5 percent.