Founded by Amancio Ortega in 1975, Zara is a flagship clothing chain store that is part of Inditex group, the world's largest apparel retailer. Amancio Ortega opened the first Zara store in 1975 in central A Coruña, Galicia, Spain where the company is still based. Ortega initially named the store Zorba after the classic film Zorba the Greek, but after learning there was a bar with the same name two blocks away, the letters were remoulded for the sign to say "Zara". It is believed the extra "a" came from an additional set of letters that had been made for the company. The company specializes in fast fashion, and products include clothing, accessories, shoes, swimwear, beauty, and perfumes.

The company specializes in fast fashion, and products include clothing, accessories, shoes, swimwear, beauty, and perfumes. Zara needs just one week to develop a new product and get it to stores, compared to the six-month industry average and makes roughly 40,000 designs of which around 12,000 new designs are carefully selected and produced each year. While customers enjoy quality wear and exotic fashion, they get percentage discounts for each order, especially on Black Fridays.

The company can design a new product and have finished goods in its stores in four to five weeks; it can modify existing items in as little as two weeks. Shortening the product life cycle 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 If a design does not sell well within a week, it is withdrawn from shops, further orders are cancelled and a new design is pursued. Zara monitors customers' fashion changes. Zara has a range of basic designs that are carried over from year to year, but some fashion-forward designs can stay on the shelves less than four weeks, which encourages Zara fans to make repeat visits.

Zara has a policy of zero advertising; the company preferred to invest a percentage of revenues in opening new stores instead. For those who just can't wait to get started, you can already take a sneak peek at what's going to go on sale right now. This means you can pick out your favourites and the best bargains at Zara ahead of Thursday evening, without having to frantically search when the sale starts.