Zara, countercurrent, reduces promotions in Black Friday

La marca de Inditex sólo rebajó globalmente en su web un 5% de sus referencias de moda mujer y un 8% de las de hombre en noviembre, frente al 21% de 2018, según Bank of America.

Inditex raises the commitment to its strategy of reducing promotional activity to sell as many garments at 100% of its price and caring for their margins.Zara, teaches that he concentrates two thirds of group sales, was "less aggressive in his discounts" during the Black Friday of 2019 compared to 2018, according to a study prepared by Bank of America, which analyzes the sales made by the main groupsEuropean textiles on this date.

The bank, which takes as a reference a tracking of the offers of each group on the web pages of its main markets, indicates that the discount policy made by Zara in Fashion Woman has been traced during all months of 2019 to that of2018, except exceptIn July, coinciding with summer sales, when it promoted 62% of references compared to 74% of a year earlier, and in November, when it drastically reduced discounts.

In fact, last month, in which the promotional activity is marked by the Black Friday, Zara only made discounts globally in 5% of its references of women's clothing, compared to 21% a year ago.The same happens in man's fashion, with a discounts policy that almost cut that of 2018, but that has been reduced to a third in November, by lowering only 8% of the references globally, compared to 21% makes ayear.

The explanation to these figures, well below those of its competition, is that the group concentrates its promotions of Black Friday in one day and only celebrates this date in the markets where there is tradition, which reduces its exhibition with respect to other chains thatThey make discounts globally and for a week or more.In Spain, he put his entire collection at 20% discount last Friday.

Counterflow

In any case, Inditex is going against the countercurrent of other large European textile groups, which in most cases have raised or maintained discounts during Black Friday. H&M, el otro gran retailer europeo de moda, aplicó promociones en noviembre sobre el 38% de su ropa de mujer y el 21% de la de hombre, lo que supone cuatro y dos puntos más, respectivamente, que en el mismo mes del año anterior.The analysis also reflects that the Swedish firm reduced its promotions in the first half of the year compared to 2018, but has recovered last year's levels in the second semester.

In the case of November, its average discounts were 45%, compared to 43% of ZARA, which has offered less lowered clothes, but has raised the average offers of which it has promoted: last year it placed its discounts on a30% average.

The study also analyzes the segment of sportswear, and the conclusion is that the two large European groups of this segment, Adidas and Puma, have been much more aggressive this Black Friday than in last year.

In the case of the first, the amount of reduced references has been between 50% (USA) and 70% (United Kingdom) this year.For their part, the average discounts approached 40% in the US and stood slightly below 35% in Germany or the United Kingdom.In all cases these sales were between two and three points higher than those of 2018.

Puma's case is different.The German brand put less reduced products than Adidas, but offered a promotional code for purchases on its website on all its references, which makes Bank of America consider that it applied discounts on 100% of its products.Without counting that code, its sales were between 30% and 45%.

'Pure Players' Online

Finally, Bank of America's analysis dedicates a wide space to three online retailers: Zalando, Asos and Boohoo.The last two, both British, applied promotions in all their references during the Black Friday, while the German Zalando did not reach that level, although it raised the percentage of lowered clothing compared to the previous year.

Boohoo was also the firm that offered the most aggressive discounts, 55% on average, compared to 43% of Asos and 31% Zalando.The latter was quite consistent in the promotions made in all markets, while Boohoo and Asos increased their offers in the US, where Black Friday has a greater tradition, 60% and 49%, respectively.