Strengths
The inditex group has an understanding of key fashion trends each season, and has a good combination of bricks and mortar stores and online channels. (Mintel, 2019) The brand operates internationally and the most well known brand in the group is Zara. For 2018/2019, Zara took 65.7% of the sales of the Inditex group. According to a mintel report, 80% of the energy used by Inditex will be renewable by 2025. In 2018, Inditex's digital sales grew 27% to €3.2 billion. The online sales of the business currently account for 14% of the groups total sales. They are growing in both bricks and more store sales and online sales. The Inditex group is receiving a large amount of online growth. They have had online sites had 2.9 billion visits in 2018, which is 500 million more than in 2017 and 900 million more than 2016. The social media presence for each of Inditex's brands has grown from having a total of 85 million followers in 2016 to a total of 143 million at the end of the 2018/2019 year. (Mintel, 2019) 22 million of these followers were gained in just the last 12 months.
Weaknesses
The Inditex group has recently had some store closures. In 2018/2019 they had planned to open 300 to 400 stores and close 200, but they ended up opening 370 and closing 355. (Mintel, 2019) The rate of their store closures is expected to slow down. In the Spanish market two of the biggest competitors are Amazon and Zalando. The brands in the Inditex group deliever fast fashion, however do not compete with brands like Primark in price.
Opportunities
By 2025 the group plans to source 100% of the cotton, linen and polyester fabrics they use in their products to be organic, sustainable or recycled. (Mintel, 2019) This is an opportunity to focus more on sustainablity. From 2020, plastic bags will be scrapped. In global retail space, this grew by 4.7% in the 2018/2019 year. The current year which ends in January 2020, they are expected to achieve a growth of 4%. (Mintel, 2019)
Threats
The growth of ASOS and Boohoo in the UK may potentially be a threat to Inditex.