TITLE:
Sustainable Retailing Performance of Zara during COVID-19 Pandemic
AUTHORS:
Suheela Shabir, Norah Ali AlBishri
KEYWORDS:
Coronavirus (Covid-19), Risk Management, Fashion Industry, Retail Business, Consumer Behavior, E-Retailing, Saudi Arabia
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.9 No.3,
April
15,
2021
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.