Dec. 15, 2020 9:54 am ET
Zaraâs owner is having to shut stores again in the crucial run up to Christmas. The fashion retailerâs fast-growing online business may not patch the hole as well as might be hoped.
Spain-based Inditex , the worldâs largest clothing retailer, said on Tuesday that sales over the three months through October fell 10% at constant exchange rates compared with the same period of 2019. The company had almost recovered to precrisis sales levels when the second wave struck. Markets like Spain and Ireland imposed tighter rules on nonessential retailers from mid-October.
With new restrictions coming into force this week in parts of the U.K., Germany and the Netherlands, the question is whether Inditexâs digital businessâwhich is much larger today than it was before the pandemicâcan claw back lost store sales any faster than it did during the first wave of restrictions. The answer seems to be a qualified no based on the data so far.