Now that Zara is here, what might it mean for retail in South Africa?

For a company that does not spend its revenue on advertising, Zara is a devastating retail success.  When I was in Europe and America I never made it to a Zara store, I’ve only ever heard about it via that powerful tool called word of mouth and of course the Internet yet there I was acting like I know what it’s going to be.

They had me at the facial expressions of the mannequins before I even looked at the clothes! This is how a woman feels when she looks nice.  ‘’You can look but don’t touch me, I am hot’’.  And then the clothes. Well cut, well-fitting and very clean lines – they yelled (but only subtly) luxury and sophisticated.  That was just the window.  When I walked into the store, I was not moved in the slightest. I looked left, right and straight and marvelled at the sheer size of the shop, 2700 square metres.  But as I got closer to each rail, each table and each shelf, I realised that bad design has no place in this empire.  


Every single item, even the ones I did not like, is well designed and is a generally good garment of clothing.  The shop is divided into a Women’s, Men’s and Kids section, each with further divisions according to style, price and age of customer.  The merchandising is spot on. You’ll find a top displayed with a pair of shorts that can actually be worn with the other trousers or skirt displayed in the same area, as well as interchangeable shoes and bags to go with the looks.  It’s trendy but not super trendy and what I like the most is that they don’t make millions of the same thing in different colours, the stocks are limited. Why? Because each Zara store in the world gets new stock twice a week – the result of their 36 – 48 hour cycle of delivery from Distribution Centre to Stores!  As a store owner,  I know for a fact that this is the reason people come back to a shop they like - the combination of trendy, affordable clothes that are limited and new each week.  

This four pronged model [Price, Limited Stock, Fast Supply of New Stock, Trendy] is a reason for Doreen and I to shake in our boots as small little boutique owners, but even more so for the other retailers in South Africa.  Mr Price can chill because they are super cheap but they will probably have reason to fear when H&M comes (it’s a rumour for now but I’m sure the Swedes are waiting to see how the Spanish fair in deep dark Africa and I’m sure the Brits and Topshop are on that same waiting wagon). The rest will have to up their game and possibly lower their prices. Not right now because there is only one store, but it’s a matter of time before there is a store in Cape Town, Durban and another in Johannesburg or Pretoria.  Spain’s neighbour, Portugal alone has 10 million people and 50 stores, I don’t even want to imagine how many stores there are in the rest of Europe. 

Southern Africa is a new frontier for Zara, with stores in North Africa (Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria) along with Australia. They only opened two stores in Australia earlier this year and now we hold our breaths and wait for the rest to pop up like corn.  You see, their business model is not the traditional one followed by other retailers, which is what makes them the greatest retailer according to many a Financial Times article and uh, what’s that Business School in Massachusetts? Oh Harvard. Traditionally, other retailers focus on the following in this order: Design, Manufacturing, Distribution and lastly the Customer.  Zara does it the other way round: Customer, Design, Manufacture and Distribution.  And unlike other retailers who outsource their manufacturing to Asia, Zara does 50% of its manufacturing in Spain, about 24% in Europe and the rest in Asia, South America and North Africa – so they control the cycle of production and distribution, which is why it has resulted in expedience.

I’m really not saying all these things to blow smoke up their asses but I am of the opinion that if the Johannesburg store is successful (judging by last night’s queues at the counters and that was only the media) , this is really going to rattle some retail cages and possibly, hopefully motivate our industry to become more competitive in design, price and approach to customers.  Their prices are not cheap by South African standards but they good.  I found a really nice white t-shirt with embroidery for R199. There was another top for R349 and a dress that Nicole and I fell in love with without the other one knowing, that we are going to share, it’s R1200.  They have a good stock of men’s clothing from casual to formal wear, with suit jackets going for R999, which is nothing.  There is also a kids section. Cute stuff for little ones but way too expensive.  I wanted to buy dresses for my 7, 6 and 4 year old cousins but at R450 a dress, I was convinced to rather buy them glitter and face-paint. 

The stock is from the past European Summer so it’s not brand new although there was an Asian girl there who told me that the leather skirt we were all admiring (R1200) was on sale in Beijing in May and she got it for R200.  But the pants she was wearing yesterday, which were on the rails in the Jhb store, she bought last week in Dubai for the same price.  At the end of the day, it’s stuff South African consumers have not seen.  In terms of sizing, people bigger than size 36 are going to have some issues buying stuff.  There are some styles that fit most figures but most of the stuff is for smaller figures, which is something our local retailers like Woolworths, have got right. We’re not a nation of morbid obesity but a loooot of our people have junk in their trunk and a lot of them have money to spend!

All in all, it’s a great store and I’m sure many people will destroy their credit rating there.  And no I doubt you can open an account there.