Azadea Egypt Group announced on Thursday 4th June 2009 the opening of their first ZARA store in Egypt. Currently, there are more than 1500 ZARA stores around the world. The new store is located on the first floor at Stars Centre – Citystars Heliopolis. The store features an extensive selection of fashionable styles including product lines for women, men and kids.

Zara is the flagship chain store of Inditex Group owned by Spanish tycoon Amancio Ortega. The group is headquartered in A Coruna, Galicia, Spain, where the first Zara store opened its doors in 1975.

It is claimed that Zara can develop a new product and get it to stores in just two weeks, compared with a six month industry average, and launches around 10,000 new designs each year. Zara has resisted the industry-wide trend, which shifts fast fashion production to low cost developing countries.

Perhaps its most baffling strategy was its policy of zero advertising: instead the company preferred to invest a percentage of its revenue into opening new stores. The fashion industry usually thrives on being fashion forward; retailing and promoting predicted season’s trends via fashion shows and similar channels of influence as their edge. However, Zara focuses and delivers the fashion items that its customers covet.

Shortening the product lifecycle means greater success in meeting consumer preferences. If a design does not sell well within a week, it is withdrawn from shops, further orders are cancelled and a new design is ensued. No design stays on the shop floor for more than four weeks, which encourages Zara’s avid shoppers to make repeat visits. A study showed that an average high-street store in Spain expects customers to visit three times a year. That rate rockets up to 17 times a year for Zara.