@theventure: Zara spends almost nothing on advertising. It puts about 0.3% of its sales into ads. Most clothing chains spend around 3.5%, more than ten times as much. Zara spends that money on shops in the best locations in each city instead, and lets the shops do the selling. That only works if people keep coming back, and they do. New stock arrives at every Zara twice a week, and each design is made in small batches, so something you liked on Monday may be gone by Saturday. Zara shoppers visit around 17 times a year. At most other clothing chains it is three or four. Each of those visits also tells Zara something. Shop staff report what customers asked for and couldn't find, and the designers in Spain use it to decide what to make next. Rivals plan their clothes six months ahead and advertise to sell what they guessed. Zara makes what its shoppers have already asked for. Ortega kept himself out of the spotlight the same way he kept Zara out of the ads. On the day Inditex listed on the stock market in 2001 and made him billions, he ate lunch in the company canteen. Follow @theventure for the greatest founder stories ever told!

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Thursday 24 September 2026 00:01:07 GMT