The retailer's speed has conditioned customer behavior: shoppers expect frequently updated designs and know that popular items will be available only for a limited time. As a result, Zara customers visit their stores four times as often as traditional retailers (see below). This loyalty enables Zara to spend less than 0.5% of its sales on advertising, compared with 4% at H&M. It also reduces spending on unsold inventory and markdowns.

However, prioritizing speed at scale can be costly. With its nimble operations, Zara spends almost 50% of sales on manufacturing and logistics, while H&M spends around 40%. But because its products satisfy customer preferences and marketing costs are much lower, Zara achieves a higher margin and profit per unit while maintaining a faster inventory turnover (see below).