Inditex has presented its annual report, corresponding to the 2021 financial year, in which it highlights that its revenues experienced a growth of 35.8% to reach 27,716 million euros . The report also highlights that the company’s net profit stood at 3,243 million euros, which is 193% more than last year.
But without a doubt, the great protagonist of these accounts is the online channel.
Online sales reach 7,500 million euros
Inditex’s online sales, which brings together recognized brands such as Pull&Bear, Zara, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius, Oysho and Zara Home , reached revenues of 7,491 million euros during this period , representing a growth of 14%. More interesting articles to be posted on daily basis.
This growth is ostensibly less than the remarkable increase of 77% experienced in 2020, produced in the midst of the pandemic. In any case, it is a remarkable result, which makes online revenues account for 25.5% of the Group’s total sales and is expected to represent 30% of the total by 2024 .
In its statement, Inditex highlights that the deployment of the system for integrating stock with stores (SINT) is now fully completed in all formats, so that online orders were placed from stores for an amount of 1,191 million euros . The integrated network is now fully supported by Inditex’s own Open Platform (IOP) operating system .
The integrated stock or SINT is a tool that the Group has opted for and has been developing for years. This tool is very important, and as Marcos Castro, Zara ‘s omnichannel business product owner, explained to us at the time, “it allows a different way of selling. Over the years we have thought ‘ we have stock in physical stores, why don’t we sell that stock?’ This is how SINT was born, which among other things allows us to manage stock through RFID tags . Without him we would not be able to publish all the stock that we have in the physical store”.
A 2021 of consolidation for Inditex
During the aforementioned financial year, Inditex opened 226 stores in 40 markets. In addition, during 2021, there were 146 million active applications and online brands received 6.2 billion visits. Some brands that also have 228 million followers on social networks. Additionally, the company’s net profit increased by 193% , reaching 3,243 million euros .
Another point to highlight is the growth of in-store and online sales between February 1 and March 13, which rose to 33% compared to the same period in 2021 and 21% compared to the previous all-time highs. -covid 2019. During this period, sales in stores and online in Russia and Ukraine, countries currently involved in a war since the end of February, accounted for approximately 5% of sales growth.
Accelerating digital transformation
During the year, the Group has continued to develop the investments worth 2,700 million euros committed for the years 2020, 2021 and 2022, managing to accelerate its transformation and the growth of online sales above 25% of the total. Since 2012, when the digital transformation of the Company began, the Group has invested more than 13,000 million euros.
In this sense, the different brands have continued to complete the markets with online sales . Thus, for example, Zara incorporated Ecuador, Aruba and the Dominican Republic to its online sales.
Furthermore, the Group has also explored new formats of digital innovation with Pacific Game, a game on the Spark AR Platform, developed together with Facebook Creative Shop and inspired by the collection for the younger audience. In addition, it has set foot in the metaverse through Zepeto, and channels such as Twitch, a platform that has hosted live streams promoted by Pull&Bear, have gained relevance.
“After two years of the pandemic, these results demonstrate the great capacity to adapt to any circumstance that characterizes all the people who make up this Company through commitment and talent, ” said Pablo Isla , Chairman of Inditex.
For his part, the CEO of Inditex, Óscar García Maceiras , highlighted that “the leadership shown by the company in the digital transformation of recent years places us in an unbeatable position for the future to offer the best experience in our proposal quality and sustainable fashion”.