Sustainable Retailing Performance of Zara during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

From an international business risk management perspective, the widespread and catastrophic implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the performance of Zara (Parent company Indetex) are studied and analyzed to contribute to ongoing research on the conventional brick-and-mortar retail business. Brick-and-mortar retail has headed into decline over the last several years, and e-retailing has grown exponentially during the lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of this study is to understand and highlight the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis on the performance of Zara in Saudi Arabia. It was found that consumers’ preferences and purchasing behavior experienced a paradigm shift from the earlier behavior patterns. Because this crisis has caused many businesses to collapse altogether, this study tries to understand the specific factors that were responsible for affecting the overall performance of Zara. This helped generate several key findings. This study also aims to identify the main challenges relating to sustainable retailing at Zara and review how Zara has incorporated sustainability into their business. The concept of sustainability has gained widespread appeal due to growing concerns over environmental externalities. The results from this review also indicate that there is a lack of research on sustainable retailing with respect to Zara in the global market. Further, this review proposes potential digital strategies for Zara to maintain their performance in the global market during the COVID-19 pandemic.