// Inditex’s late entry into online retail was a good thing, says CEO Pablo Isla
// Isla believes this allowed the company to develop a better business model
The chairman and chief executive of Inditex has said the company’s late entry into ecommerce was a good thing, as it allowed for more time to develop a strong business model.
Speaking at the CEO Council event organised by the Wall Street Journal in London recently, Pablo Isla highlighted how his company – which owns fashion retailers like Zara, Bershka, Pull&Bear, Stradivarius and Massimo Dutti – had no ecommerce business until 2010.
Isla said this timing allowed Inditex to develop an ecommerce business model that has positioned it strongly, compared to if it had done this five years earlier.
“It’s much more difficult later on to try to move to an integrated business than from the very beginning,” he said.
He also explained that although Inditex’s sourcing and distribution decisions are based on algorithms and data, it still depends on store managers to make decisions, giving its ecommerce operations a “human touch”.
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