High-street luxury fashion retail brand Zara shut its flagship Mumbai store at the iconic, heritage-listed 110-year-old Ismail Building in the heart of South Mumbai on Monday morning.
Opened in May 2017, the global fast-fashion retailer’s stand-alone store, spread over 51,300 sq. feet across five floors in the business district at Flora Fountain, was a popular haunt for Mumbai’s fashionistas and elite shoppers.
SALMAN ANSARI
Zara outlets in India are operated by Inditex Trent, a joint venture between Spain’s Inditex and the Tata Group’s retail arm, Trent Ltd. The company paid an astronomical ₹30 crore in annual lease rent for the flagship store to the building’s owner, Supariwala Exports. The lease tenure was for 15 years, with a five-year lock-in period.
Meanwhile, unaware of the closure, shoppers continued to visit Flora Fountain in search of trendy fashion wear, only to be disappointed. “I drove down with my cousins from Malad to shop for destination wedding party outfits at the Zara store. We will now try the other outlet at Lower Parel,” said 27-year-old chartered accountant Amisha Shah.
The store put up a sign in the late afternoon announcing the closure of operations, stating: “Please be informed that this Zara store will cease operations after the end of business on 23rd February.
SALMAN ANSARI
SALMAN ANSARI
Senior officials at Tata Trent, which runs the Zara brand in India, remained tight-lipped about the closure but admitted that declining footfall and the growing dominance of e-commerce had led the high-street fashion brand to rethink customer engagement. The company is now leveraging data-driven insights to personalize shopping experiences. “Major investments in technologies like augmented reality (AR) for virtual fitting rooms and AI-powered recommendations will define the future of Zara’s retail innovation,” said an official privy to the brand’s future expansion plans in India.
The global fashion powerhouse had announced a dramatic restructuring plan last year, resulting in the closure of 1,200 stores worldwide as it moves towards a more digitally focused future.
Additionally, the closure of garment factories in Bangladesh—a key hub for global apparel production—is expected to severely impact major fashion brands. The transition reflects broader retail trends, with many brick-and-mortar stores struggling to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, fluctuating consumer behavior, the rising dominance of online platforms, and supply chain disruptions, including the closure of manufacturing units in Bangladesh.
Inditex, the parent company of Zara and Bershka, had significant manufacturing operations in Bangladesh, with 150 suppliers and 273 sewing factories, employing nearly 10 lakh workers.
