1,200 Zara Outlets Closed Worldwide Due To COVID-19 Pagebluk

Illustration (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - The impact of the COVID-19 impact on the business sector has been extraordinary. Whether a company is small or large, COVID-19 doesn't care. This time it was the turn of the fashion business company, Zara, to be affected. This fashion retailer closed its 1,200 stores worldwide.

Quoting The Guardian, Zara's parent company, Inditex said it would close between 1,000 and 1,200 stores especially the smaller ones. The biggest concentration of losses came from old shops selling the "brother" brand Zara. As is well known, this company has many subsidiaries, namely Bershka, Pull & Bear and Massimo Dutti.

The closures were mostly in Asia and Europe. Nevertheless, Inditex said that the number of employees will be kept stable. One solution is that they offer other job duties such as sending purchases online.

If this has been trimmed, the number of shops will decrease from 7,412 to 6,700 or 6,900. Inditex, one of the largest fashion retailers in the world, was hit by the COVID-19 hit.

Sales fell by nearly half, namely 44 percent in the first quarter. The company reported a net loss of 409 million euros, or about 6.5 trillion rupiah if converted.

However, the company is helped by online sales. Online sales increased about 50 percent during the quarter and were up 95 percent in April from a year ago.

Therefore, Inditex said it would boost their online sales. They target to target online sales of more than 25 percent by 2022. Meanwhile, the existing physical stores will become a distribution center for online sales.