Introduction
Zara, the largest retailer within the Inditex portfolio, has been able to maintain a competitive advantage over its competitors by offering up-to-the-minute fashions in its stores throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas. Zara is the result of a clothing factory integrating forward to take advantage of linkages between manufacturing and retailing. These linkages are facilitated by information technology and Zara has developed a highly automated production and distribution system to service its stores. The information systems within Zara stores are easy to use and stable, but much discussion is taking place regarding whether or not to upgrade them to take advantage of new technologies which could better support the company’s business strategy.
Strengths & Opportunities
1. Strategy: Speed & Style
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...
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...ot utilize the benefits of the current systems and incorporate additional features that would improve Zara’s operations.
Case Updates
Zara’s strategic and successful use of information technology in its production and distribution system was acknowledged in 2006 when the company received the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award which honors excellence and innovation in information technology. Inditex received the Enterprise Transformation Award for, “redefin[ing] the business model for the fashion industry by reducing the time taken to get merchandise from the design to in-store phase.” Zara also has expanded its range of merchandise to include house wares like bed and bath linens, tableware, rugs, and other home accessories which are available for purchase throughout Europe from its website, www.zarahome.com, and are shipped directly to customers.
Lowe’s is a home improvement warehouse that was founded in 1946 as a single store and since has grown to become the second largest in the world. As technology has evolved, Lowe’s has made many advances incorporating new systems and devices to stay competitive. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the information technology management systems used at Lowe’s. It will look at Porter’s Five Force Model, supply chain management; data base management system, five agent-based technologies, e-commerce and system development lifecycle. Furthermore, it will look at business continuity planning, emerging trends and security vulnerabilities relates to the organization to remain competitive.
Nordstrom is one of the top retailers in the United States. With a solid brand image and a sound financial situation, Nordstrom is relentless in their expansion in the US, and are beginning to expand into international markets. Nordstrom takes pleasure in providing state of the art client support and having experienced sales people. In order to hold their position as the most successful high-end retailer in the United States, Nordstrom must continue to figure out ways to improve their brand image and customer satisfaction. Nordstrom’s current business working strategy is successful but I believe there are a few ideal solutions that the organization could apply to further enhance the organization. Due to the aggressive characteristics of the fashion retail store market, it is crucial that Nordstrom preserves an aggressive advantage providing the highest level of customer support as possible.
Fashion is important to women; whether it falls under the context of clothing, or how they decorate their home, fashion allows women to express their individuality. With today’s rise in fashion, businesses have to accommodate the demands of consumers by creating shopping strategies that keep the shoppers interested enough to keep coming back. T.J Maxx is one of the many businesses that serve their purpose in helping women achieve their fashion goals. By taking an open floor layout and incorporating it with a mixture between the newest fashion trends and home furniture, T.J Maxx builds an atmosphere that allows women to conveniently purchase quality merchandise for a fraction of the amount they would spend at other shopping stores.
The Target Corporation prides itself on their department store roots with a constant obligation to great prices and stylish originality. The main focus of every Target store is the customer, whom the corporation refers to as a "guest", making them feel more personal. Each guest can expect to walk into a clean, organized, and easy to navigate store with "high quality, stylishly designed items plus all the essentials for his or her life".1 The company also has a significant focus on design. The company employs a "design for all" strategy that says great design is for everyone to enjoy, everyday. The product designers know how to create products you will "love to live with and low prices you can't live without".1 The commitment to design has become a key technique of attracting and keeping their shoppers coming back.
How has the use of technology changed its interaction with its suppliers? Wholesalers? Other business partners?
The ecommerce industry is growing faster than ever. TJ Maxx needs to start focusing more on ecommerce not only to keep up with competition, but also to make sure they do well during weak economic periods. ecommerce, overall, tends to do very well during lackluster economic times. TJ Maxx will be able to cut costs more easily the more they expand their ecommerce business. Our business idea will allow them to expand their ecommerce as we will take over their website and delivery. TJX Companies’ three ecommerce sites accounts for only about 1.0% of the company’s total sales. However, the online channel is a key growth driver and TJX is taking initiatives to improve its online business. The ecommerce sales
Inditex also fully owned 20 factories for internal manufacture. These factories apply just-in-time production (JIT). Again, this gave Zara further competitive advantage, in terms of both cost and control.
The principles of marketing (The Times 100, n.d) are a range of processes concerned with finding out what consumers want, and providing it for them. This involves the ‘4ps’ of marketing; price, place, product and promotion. The product decision in any company involves dealing with goods that should be offered to a group of customers (Jobber & Ellis-Chadwick, 2012). Burberry maintains a product line with great width and scope in which their products fall into two main categories; fashion or continuity. Their fashion products are designed to be responsive to fashion trends and are introduced on a collection to collection basis (Burberry, n.d). Continuity products however have life cycles that are expected to last for a certain time period. Burberry also has 3 primary collections; womenswear, menswear and accessories, with the variety of products they can utilize their product mix greatly. Burberry also has...
b) Zara can focus on expanding and increasing the number of outlets in Asian countries such as China and India. The scope of development is very high and the demand for fashionable clothes is increasing at a very fast rate. But it will have to focus on other local competitors who provides the latest fashion at a cheaper rate. As Zara is a known brand, so it would be easy to increase awareness among the consumers through advertisement, promotions and celeb endorsements.
Based on the business strategy and tactics, Zara has been trying to optimize its business operation largely in three cyclical processes ordering, fulfillment, and design and manufacturing. Much of the process are standardized and simplified under the excellent control and employee's intuitive decision making latitude. In short, the principle of Zara's business operation is optimization of all business process and get rids of all redundancies and unnecessary things. More extended or peripherals of the principles can be summarized as follow;
H&M is the world’s second largest retailer, only behind its main rival Zara of Inditex (Petro, 2012). The company currently has 3006 stores in 53 countries. The company does not own any factories. H&M outsources production to network of 800 independent suppliers; 75% in Asia and 25% in Europe. In order to increase the efficiency and productivity of its supply chain, the company strategically locates its network of 20 to 30 production offices close to its suppliers. According to Stockholm Newsroom, the pretax profit of the company for the month of June to August of 2013 is $907 million, which indicates an 11 rise in turnover (Pollard, 2013). The company continuous development plan facilitates its goal for both brick and mortar, and online stores expansion worldwide. The target segments for H&M, a category specialist store, are trendsetters and fashion/money conscious males and females ranging from 16 to 40 years old with income ranging $15,000 to $60,000 annually.
The business model that sets Zara apart from other clothing retailers is how rapidly the company changes stocks and releases new product lineups. The company averages 12-16 collections annually which equates to more than one lineup a month. Due to stock being limited and the rapid production Zara brings forth, their items are viewed as exclusive promoting further business. Their customers are happy knowing that their specific article of clothing is more “rare” due to only having an average of a two-week window to purchase the clothing. The company specifically targets current trends and has them in the store within 30 days. This maintains the brand’s uniqueness and relativity in fashion.
This paper describes the various aspects of the Zappos case. The objective is to evaluate the depth analysis of the Zappos strategy. It enables to determine the Zappos strategy, business model & marketing strategy, and smartness of the Zappos acquisition.
The Apparel or clothing industry is a very dynamic market where changes occur in a daily basis. So, rivals within this industry assist to an extreme competition. To make sure that, they stay relevant in the market scene, businesses have to develop creative, innovative and sustainable marketing strategies to attract more customers and increase their brands awareness. Because, this industry has many players, we have chosen one well known company to make our research more specific and well centered. Hennes and Mauritz AB commonly known as H&M is our best choice because, this