Global Zara closures raises concern for Aussie sites
Zara has closed 60 stores globally in the past six months.
Australia’s declining fashion retail sector has been highlighted once again, this time by quarterly reports from the global owner of Zara and its diminishing commercial property footprint.
Zara’s owner, Spanish-run Inditex, recently released its third quarter summary which revealed 60 Zara stores had been closed worldwide in the past 12 months.
Inditex didn’t detail where the 60 stores were located but at least one was based in Australia following the closure earlier this year of the brand’s only shopfront in Canberra.
The Canberra shuttering followed closures in 2022 in Newcastle and the Gold Coast.
Inditex claims the recent closures are part of ongoing restructuring to lean more into digital sales and move away from bricks-and-mortar assets that are struggling to deliver in the face of online marketplaces like Shein and Temu.
People have always been happy to queue for Zara in Australia but the tide is turning with digital marketplaces offering cheaper alternatives.
More and more Aussies are seeking cheap online alternatives to products, particularly in the fashion space, which is forcing numerous closures that lead to vacant shopfronts dotting major cities.
Zara still has 16 sites across Australia (six in NSW, three in Queensland, four in Victoria, two in Western Australia and one in South Australia) but it is unknown how many might be impacted by Inditex’s continued focus on digital sales.
Zara arrived in Australia to much fanfare in 2011 with the opening of two stores in Sydney and Melbourne and, by 2019, that number had swelled to 19 sites across the country.
The fast fashion brand quickly became an icon as Aussies flocked to the stores for the latest look.
Despite the apparent doom and gloom of store closures, Inditex closed the first nine months of 2025 with a 2.7 per cent increase in revenue.
Global sales of $49.74 billion represented a $1.3 billion rise in revenue compared to same period in 2024.
Zara has 16 stores operating in Australia, however, it is unclear how many might be impacted by Inditex continued digital focus.
Inditex’s series of Zara closures is not isolated within the fashion retail industry – Swedish fashion retailer H&M announced earlier this year it would be closing 200 stores globally in an effort to cut costs.
H&M currently has 34 sites operating across Australia, a reduction from its peak of 49 stores in 2019.
A raft of closures in 2021 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic significantly reduced H&M’s presence in Australia but the recent announcement of further global closures could spell more bad news for its local presence.
So far, H&M has shuttered 135 stores globally in the past nine months, including its flagship Brisbane store at Queen Street Mall which ceased trading in September after 10 years of operation.
