Origin of Stradivarius: keys to success of the Spanish young fashion brand

Stradivarius is a brand focused on young female population, conveying a fresh, modern, and dynamic style. The brand centers on current trends as they emerge, so the fashion they offer evolves over time and is up-to-date with the present moment.

The Spanish brand was founded in Barcelona in 1994, by one of the entrepreneurial families of the Catalan city. Five years later, the Inditex group bought 90% of the brand and acquired the remaining percentage in 2005, thus becoming fully part of the Galician group.

Since then, Stradivarius has not stopped growing. In 2009, it had already reached the American continent and had 500 stores around the world. Two years later, it entered the world of e-commerce, opening its online store following the example of its sister brand, Bershka. Currently, Stradivarius is present in 64 markets, has 850 stores, and employs more than 10,000 people throughout its establishments, offices, and warehouses.

Stores and appearance of Stradivarius

Stradivarius has always focused on combining fashion and experience within its stores. Now, with its new “Wave Store”, Stradivarius presents a minimalist design with rounded shapes and a color palette consisting of whites, grays, and beiges. In this new concept, the collections are the center of attention. Like the rest of the Inditex group, they meet their eco-efficient criteria by committing to using natural materials and LED lights.

In 2011, they opened their online store, venturing into the world of e-commerce. Now, they have a mobile application for both Android and iOS. Currently, the online store follows the same aesthetic as its physical stores, using a neutral color palette and directing the consumer’s attention towards its collection. It is a user-friendly website that favors the intuitive use of its features.

The Stradivarius website allows you to make specific searches, filter products by their characteristics (size, color, style, etc.), and create your own “wish list” where you can save the items you like the most before adding them to your shopping cart. They often hold events related to their new collections and promote them on their website, such as “Casa Stradivarius.” The website also allows you to see if the product you want to buy is available in your nearest store, in case you prefer to save yourself a trip if it’s not. Orders can be delivered to your home or picked up in-store.

Registering on Stradivarius offers some advantages: you can track your order online, save your details to save time when placing an order, and have the opportunity to make returns online.

The name of the store comes from the famous violin maker, Antonio Stradivarius. It refers to excellence within the world of music, and this is what the Inditex group wanted to convey with its brand. This is reflected in its logo, both in the previous versions and in the most recent one, where the color palette and the stroke of the letters represent the elegance that surrounds the brand. In this way, a sophisticated aspect is achieved, linked to the excellence they wanted to convey from the very beginning.

Keys to Stradivarius’ success

• Great adaptability. Their main goal is to dress women in fashion and follow market demand. This means there is no mass production, only producing the necessary stock.
• Product diversity. They don’t only focus on textile garments, but also have lines of accessories, shoes, and even perfumes.
• Affordable prices. In addition, prices are more economical for customers in Spain and Portugal.
• Low advertising expenses. Like other brands in the Inditex group, Stradivarius does not make excessive spending on advertising, allowing them to save and influence the product’s cheapening.
• Online presence. Since 2011 with the opening of their online store and adding their presence on social media, they know how to approach customers. This way, they connect with habitual or potential customers to capture new possible sales.

According to Statista, Stradivarius generated €1.243 billion in revenue in Spain in 2022, which represents significant growth compared to the previous year.

The history of Stradivarius is marked by clear growth and success in the fashion world, although they have also had to overcome some obstacles. In 2017, they launched their clothing line aimed at the male population, but in 2018 they closed it due to lack of income and low sales. Since then, they continue to focus on women’s fashion and so far, it has been going well for them.

Stradivarius is committed to sustainability and eco-efficiency.

As mentioned before, their stores are designed to comply with eco-efficiency standards. The stores are connected to the internal Inergy platform that measures the efficient consumption of air conditioning and electrical installation through monitoring. The same applies to their headquarters, located in Parc del Alba in Cerdanyola del Vallés (Barcelona). The building design is characterized by an interactive system that guarantees energy efficiency and reduces consumption through automated systems. These actions have allowed Stradivarius to reduce energy consumption by 30% and to obtain the Leed Gold certification for the building.