Do Spain's big fashion chains really compete on price?

Summary

Question: Where does each major fashion chain in Spain sit on price, and who does it overlap with?
Result: Each step up Inditex's brand ladder costs roughly twice as much; Lefties and Primark overlap 97% in jeans.
Tools and sources: SQL · Python · Online catalogues

×2

each step on Inditex's ladder costs roughly twice as much (×1.7 to ×2.0). Tendam repeats the pattern one rung higher.

97%

price overlap between Lefties and Primark in jeans: the clash at the low end.

78%

between Mango and Zara in jeans: the mid-market is a three-way clash with H&M (87% with Zara).

chains compared using 1,697 items from their online catalogues.

The question

Where does each major chain sit on price, and who does it overlap with?

Does Inditex stagger its brands without them stepping on each other, and where do they clash with their rivals?

Who it is for: a marketing team or an agency that has to set a brand's entry price and decide who to benchmark against.

Summary page with three figures: ×2 between Inditex steps, 97% overlap between Lefties and Primark in jeans and 78% between Mango and Zara. — **The summary:** Inditex and Tendam stagger their brands; the price clashes are at the low end and in the mid-market.

What is compared

Two basic garments, the same criteria for every brand.

Long-sleeved T-shirt and full-length jeans, women's section. Each item counts once (colour variants are not new rows).
Basic garment: plain or ribbed T-shirt, no print; jeans of any cut, without rips, studs or prints.
Metrics on full catalogue price; brands with 5 or more items per garment.
Brands: Inditex (Lefties, Zara, Massimo Dutti) · Tendam (Springfield, Cortefiel, Pedro del Hierro; Women'secret excluded) · Mango · H&M · Primark · Spanish premium brands (Desigual, Adolfo Domínguez, Bimba y Lola, Scalpers, El Ganso, Silbon).

The funnel

From 1,697 items to 873 comparable garments.

1,697
Items from the 16 chainsT-shirts and jeans, women's section
890
Basic garmentsno prints, rips or studs
873
In the metricsbrands with 5 or more items per garment

Findings

Ladders within each group, clashes between groups.

Median price of basic jeans
Brand	Median
Primark	€18.00
Lefties	€19.99
Mango	€29.99
H&M	€34.99
Zara	€35.95
Springfield	€35.99
Massimo Dutti	€59.95
Cortefiel	€59.99
… up to Adolfo Domínguez	€130.00

Price range by chain for long-sleeved T-shirts and jeans, on a logarithmic scale: median jeans go from €18.00 at Primark to €130.00 at Adolfo Domínguez. — **Each chain occupies its own band.** Price range by brand for T-shirts and jeans.

Inditex's ladder

Lefties → Zara → Massimo Dutti, almost double at each rung.

Lefties → Zara ×2.0 for T-shirts (15.95/7.99) and ×1.8 for jeans (35.95/19.99); Zara → Massimo Dutti ×1.9 and ×1.7. Tendam: Springfield → Cortefiel ×1.7; Cortefiel → Pedro del Hierro ×2.0.

The mirage of the mean

H&M surrounds Zara in T-shirts and clashes head-on in jeans.

H&M looks more expensive than Zara by the mean (jeans €36.38 vs €34.41) but not by the median (€34.99 vs €35.95): its expensive tail pushes the mean up.

Same at full price, apart on sale

Cortefiel matches Massimo Dutti.

At full catalogue price, a 91% overlap in jeans; with the sale price they separate (56%).

Bars showing price overlap between pairs of brands, for T-shirts (€5 bands) and jeans (€10 bands). In black, the head-on clashes; the largest, Lefties–Primark in jeans at 97%. — **Five head-on price clashes**, and at the low end there is still only one: Lefties–Primark.

Above €60, two levels: Scalpers around €60–80; Desigual, Pedro del Hierro and Adolfo Domínguez at €90–135. Control anchor: 0% overlap between this band and Primark or Lefties (the method separates well).
Price psychology: in 10 of 20 brand–garment combinations, 3 price points or fewer cover the whole basics catalogue. The .95 ending belongs to Zara and Massimo Dutti; .99 to H&M, Lefties, Mango, Cortefiel and Springfield.
The gap: between Zara and Massimo Dutti (T-shirts €17.95–29.95, jeans €39.95–49.95) lies the least occupied zone.

Robustness

A clash only counts if it holds when the band width changes and with the sale price.

4 of the 11 overlaps above 50% dropped by 20 points or more. When 11 brands were added to the original analysis, five conclusions held and two changed (“only two clashes” → five; “Massimo Dutti on its own” → Cortefiel matches it).

How to use it

To position a brand: first the price band, then who to benchmark against.

Low end: jeans €18.00–19.99, T-shirt €7.00–7.99 → benchmark Lefties and Primark.
Mid-market: jeans €29.99–35.95, T-shirt €14.99–15.95 → compare with Zara, H&M and Mango at the same time.
Upper mid-market: jeans €59.95, T-shirt €29.95 → Massimo Dutti and Cortefiel (check their sale prices).
Zone to investigate: T-shirt €17.95–29.95, jeans €39.95–49.95 → validate demand before deciding.

The four price bands, with the brands to benchmark against in each.

Limitations

What this analysis does not answer.

It is positioning, not strategy.
It is a single-day snapshot: Springfield had 90% of items on sale and Cortefiel 41%.
Samples for the premium brands are small.
Basics are classified by keywords.
Shein is excluded (anti-bot protection), as is Women'secret (no jeans).
Quartiles are approximated with NTILE(4).

Conclusion

A price map for deciding where to enter and who to measure yourself against.

A map of the catalogue prices of 16 chains, checked with two metrics, two band widths and the sale price, showing which band each one sits in and who it shares prices with.

It does not measure sales or demand: it is the starting point for asking about them.

The report's conclusion: what a brand could do and what an agency could do.