Introduction The fashion industry has changed over a period of time due to the growth of boundaries. This is attributed to the varying dynamics of the industry; declining mass production, altered structural aspects in the supply chain, need for more affordable cost and quality. This shows that fashion retailers are able to acquire a competitive power in the market through making sure through which they get their products to the market for the consumers (McAfee, Dessain, & Sjoman, 2007). Consumers are hence able to get product easy and of high quality. Fast fashion has been able to meet the needs of consumers while trying to acquire major merchandize turnover to retailers than local rivals. The Zara case study reported sales $8.15 billion to its competitors Hennes & Mauritz 0f $7.87 billion (Dutta, 2002). This was the consumer’s one stop shop due to the quality products offered both globally and locally. This paper will focus on the fashion trend of the Zara case study. The paper will look at the varied roles that consumers play in the market and how the alter the market. From this, the paper will focus on the globalization of Zara from how it started and to how it grew to become a global company. Then the paper focuses on the theories that arise from the Zara case study and how they relate to the company’s techniques to appeal to the consumers. Fast-Fashion Strategy: Zara Case study Zara is a Spanish apparel store that is completely integrated. The company has been on the fore front in terms of technology by acquiring machines and applying their resources to acquire new ideas in shortest time (Delagarde, and Baykal, 2011; McAfee, 2004). This is focused on getting the products out to the consumers at the shortest possible time. A... ... middle of paper ... ...m: http://thirdeyesight.in/articles/ImagesFashion_Zara_Part_I.pdf, Accessed in 6th February 2014 Ferdows, K., Lewis, M., & Machuca, J. A.D., 2003. Zara. Supply Chain Forum: International Journal, 4(2), 62-66. Jonsson, A. 2008. A transaction perspective on knowledge sharing: Lessons learned from Ikea’s entry into Russia, China and Japan. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research 18, no. 1: 17-44. Kroenke, D. M., 2012. Experiencing MIS (3rd ed.), In Organizational strategy, Information systems, and Competitive advantage. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. pp. 51. McAfee, A., 2004. Do you have too much IT? MIT Sloan Management Review, 45(3), 18-22, 4p. McAfee, A., Dessain, V., & Sjoman, A., 2007. Zara: IT for Fast Fashion. Harvard Business School, 1-23. Thomas, R.J., 2006. Uncovering Zara. Apparel Magazine, 47(5), p.27.
The first article I read, “How Zara Grew Into the World’s Largest Fashion Retailer,” provides information about Zara and the company that owns Zara, Inditex. It describes the business model plan for Zara and its economic prosperity. This article explains how Zara focuses on making and shipping new fashions to its stores frequently, twice a week. This makes the customer think they should buy their products immediately because it may be gone soon. The result of this is called impulse shopping. Impulse shopping has changed consumer behavior and the way customers react to shopping. In recent years, the shopping patterns of customers have been this way due to the popularity of fast fashion.
The Zara fashion chain, with 546 stores in 30 countries today ?from which 340 are outside Spain- and ?2914,3 millions of total sales in 2002, is undoubtedly the group?s locomotive (Inditex, 2003). In 2002 it represented 33% of the group?s total stores, accounted for 72% of the group?s total sales and contributed to the holding?s total profits for ?540.4 millions (Inditex FY2002 Results Presentation, 2003). Moreover, Zara with 75-90 new stores within 2003 takes the lion?s share in group?s current year store openings (total openings for 2003: 260-315). The purpose of the Porter analysis is to analyse the competitiveness of the market.
It should be mentioned that the global phenomenon of fast fashion taking over the traditional fashion industry was not an incident solely distributed to H&M, but it was a concerted effort by a number of innovative fashion businesses, in which Zara perhaps gained more recognition and credit than that of H&M. Admittedly, H&M was dubbed “global leader” in fast
Strategic management practices can be effective if the people in the management seat are eloquent to the fact that fashion industry is composed of different products and markets trends where element of style is short lived. The following features define fashion industry: the products in the fashion industry are short live as they are mostly designed to fulfill the mood of a specific moment. In this essence, the products are seasonal which make them short lived which are measured in weeks or months. Given the demands of the textile consumers, the products are not stable or linear as they are managed by weather, media trends, celebrates and other icons (Lee, 2016). Textile and clothing industry has taken a global
Zara’s strategy is to deliver up-to-the-minute fashions to its customers who are looking for the latest trends. In order to achieve this goal, all of Zara’s operations are developed around the tenants of speed and decentralized decision-making. All of Zara’s divisions work to decrease the time it takes to bring products from the design table to the sales floor to ensure customers find what they are looking for. By delivering new styles to stores quickly Zara is able to respond rapidly to changes in clothing trends and in the market. This allows the company to spend very little on advertising and still maximize revenue by constantly introducing new styles. This rapid merchandise turnover encourages customers to visit stores frequently as they know there will be new items available and to purchase items they like immediately since they know the offerings will be different the next time they visit...
Zara realizes that millennial customers hate seeing someone on the street with the same sport coat or dress. The need to be unique and individual is rooted
...ll require a lot of new employees for Zara to hire as well as the correct training and development. Because Zara is already familiar and used to the current system of one main centralized distribution system in Arteixo, Spain it must be implemented with the full support of the staff and managers on the ground floor in order for it to be successful. By expanding their distribution centers I believe Zara can enormously improve their operations and productivity levels.
Zara is one of the world-known fashion retail companies, which founded by Amancio Ortega and Rosalía Mera in 1975. Zara’s first store was located in Spain and start expanding their company in different countries, like the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Korea. Now they have around 4,400 stores in 73 countries worldwide. Recently, Zara has been criticized for stealing other artists’ designs. According to the news posted on the guardian, an independent designer come from Los Angeles named Tuesday Bassen has argued that Zara using her pin and patch designs without any inquiries. She sent a legal letter to Zara but they have rejected her claims with the reason, saying ‘Bassen is not famous enough and her designs are lack of individuality. In the
e.g. wearing fashionable/trendy clothing but for less the price. It makes Zara aware of their latest trends and collections for everyone tastes.
Companies offering luxurious fashions rely on their brand as the primary means of generating customer sales. The strategy of high quality, high price and high margins is considered a differentiation or focused strategy by which the brand carry’s the sale. This branding sends a certain type of message and retailers are relying on this message to generate abnormal profits.
Birtwistle, G. & Moore C.M. (2006) Fashion clothing- where does it all end up? The International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 35, 210-216.
Zara's model particularly, was quick to respond to the shifts in consumer's tastes. Zara's fashion designs stay in the market for not more than four weeks. This
Zara’s motive when globally expanding was they wanted to reach more fashion conscious consumers and become known for its fast fashion. When Zara first entered markets they entered markets that were culturally or geographically close. They also looked at the behavior of consumers; the French are more fashionable and quality oriented while Germans are price sensitive, Americans are less trendy, Japanese consumers are trendier, and the British shop at stores based on social affinity. The fact that like Germany some countries are price sensitive is the reason they have different prices for different regions. Zara keeps about 80% of its inventory the same for all regions with 20% of it changed for each market. They adapt their strategies to different cultural, administrative, geographical, and economic factors.
In the very competitive sector of fashion retail and with the threat of low quality-mow price suppliers, organizations are challenged to innovate more than anywhere and to adapt in response of changes mainly due to globalization.
Fast fashion has been a main reassurance in the fashion industry. Cute but cheap garments and bad quality clothing is popular amongst people in the world. Negative feelings has been shown for this plenty of times by the youth, adults and workers by protest. The slow fashion movement has been on a rise for years and has made a name for itself in the fashion industry while discouraging other fast fashion brands. Somehow, fast fashion still thrives and is supported by many people. The sources that were seeked for this explanation all supported fast fashion. The authors shows true facts that answers the question of ‘Why is fast fashion still thriving, even with the consequences that comes with it?’.