Inditex, the world’s biggest clothing retailer, reported strong sales growth for the first five weeks of its new financial year and the owner of the Zara chain said it would slow its rapid pace of new store openings. Inditex, tapping into a wider industry trend of expanding online sales, will focus store openings on flagship sites in prime locations.

It will aim for 6 to 8 per cent growth in new sales space in coming years, below previous guidance of 8 to 10 per cent. “We believe that Inditex has made the right choice to slow space growth,” said Bernstein analyst Jamie Merriman. “We believe that Inditex is clearly able to grow market share with the less capital intensive e-commerce approach.”

Inditex had opened 330 stores in 56 markets in 2015, with a new Zara shop in Hawaii becoming the group’s 7,000th store worldwide. It added a Zara store in New York’s trendy SoHo district last week. Inditex, whose brands include upmarket label Massimo Dutti and teen fashion chain Bershka, expanded online sales to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao and Australia during the year and said it would complete its online presence in all European Union markets in April when it goes live in Slovenia.

Sales of items such as broderie anglaise blouses and floral lace dresses from fashion label Zara’s spring collection helped push sales across Inditex’s stable of brands up 15 per cent, at constant exchange rates, in the first five weeks of the financial year that started in February. Rival H&M saw sales rise just 7 per cent in January in local currencies and warned that price reductions to shift winter wear after unusually warm weather and high purchasing costs due to a strong dollar would weigh on its first quarter.