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The business of fast fashion
The business of fast fashion
Global supply chain management zara eassy
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The Fast Fashion Business Model
1. What are the key characteristics associated with the fashion markets that support this model?
The fashion industry is synonymous with rapid changes and for a company to have success in the fashion industry the organization needs to be fast and flexible. The nature of the industry is discussed in terms of its volatility, complexity and dynamism. Companies like Zara, the retailer H&M and GAP have to keep up with the every changing trends in the fashion industry. One day skinny jeans will be all the rage and the next day they will be out of style. The fashion industry changes with the popular styles of its day, and it changes day by day, month by month.
The Fashion industry manufactures cloths that have
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When a customer purchases an item the data is directly imputed into the company’s mainframe and schedules each of the stores replenishment cycles depending on demand. This keeps the supply chain lean, and nothing moves unless it has to. This is all made possible with an effective IT department utilizing the latest methods to keep Zara and H&M the leading fashion outlets in the world.
4. What are the integration requirements between partners in this strategy?
An early and constant communication between customer and supplier can ensure a better management of the supply chain, and a more agile supply chain. Another rule is if a customer treats his suppliers well, inform them, being involved with their process is likely that less issues raise and usually is a guarantee for a longtime partnership. These facts are well known by Zara and used in its daily operations. Zara’s designers gather data on sales and inventory from each of its stores on a daily basis and use this to inform their view of the situation.
This in turn brings great flexibility to Zara and H&M, allowing them to cope with the sudden changes in customer demand. Zara, in comparison to its larger competitors like Old Navy, only has 20 strong supplier partnerships compared to Zara’s much larger competitor with 65 suppliers
Berry, Hannah. “The Fashion Industry: Free to Be an Individual.” The Norton Field Guide to
Zara’s business model can be broken down into three basic components: concept, capabilities, and value drivers. Zara’s fundamental concept is to maintain design, production, and distribution processes that will enable Zara to respond quickly to shifts in consumer demands. José María Castellano, CEO of Inditex stated that "the fashion world is in constant flux and is driven not by supply but by customer demand. We need to give consumers what they want, and if I go to South America or Asia to make clothes, I simply can't move fast enough." This highlights the importance of this quick response time to Zara’s operations.
Analysis & Recommendation: Zara’s main strategy is the ability to respond very quickly to the demands of target customers which called for identifying trends of the customer in advance. The company has been able to identify the trends and meet the demand with the help of its autonomously organized structure and its effective value chain systems. The present system followed by Zara has been very effective and very easy to maintain, which as a result has persuaded the company to continue without any change in the present system so far. The problem that Zara faces right now is that the system that they use, P-O-S (Point of Sale terminals), runs on DOS which Microsoft does not support anymore and any hardware change in the POS terminal will not be compatible with the current POS software. Although the sense of urgency for the change may not be that high, investing in IT infrastructure is a must as MS Dos is an obsolete technology and there is no contract or guarantee from their POS terminal vendor that they will continue supplying the same terminal with out much changes in the hardware for any specific period of time, therefore change is unavoidable. The other main issue that Zara faces is that the stores don’t share inventory information electronically and hence inventory management becomes highly difficult and manual. The decision making process is based on the judgment of employees throughout the company instead of relying on a small set of decision makers; the majority of the decisions were made by store managers and as a result they placed orders for the items rather than simply accepting and displaying what headquarters decided to send them.
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.
It is hard to believe that the clergy, in the Middle Ages, was supposed to be the class for morality, yet the clergy was filled with corruption. Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales, does a miraculous job of highlighting the Middle Age clergy. Chaucer’s Prologue introduces the viewers to a number of pilgrims, who range from pure to unprincipled. The Friar is a magnificent example of how corrupt the clergymen can be at times. A friar is supposed to represent the Mendicant Catholic church. A friar’s job description is to give up worldly possessions and to travel place to place by begging. However, Chaucer’s description of the Friar varies very differently to the job title he supposedly represents. Chaucer’s focus
Fast Fashion may be the most significant disruptive in the retail industry today. Troublesome novelties, or product or services, that alter an prevailing market by presenting minimalism, suitability, convenience and affordability, have the most positive influence on a company. Because fashion is ever changing and technology is always evolving the amount of production time it takes for something to be manufactured
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;
Thesis: With the unregulated practices that goes on in the Fashion Industry, change is one notion that this abusive yet glamorous business have yet to see.
Petro, G. (2012, November 5). The future of fashion retailing --- the H&M approach (part 3 of 3). Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregpetro/2012/11/05/the-future-of-fashion-retailing-the-hm-approach-part-3-of-3/
Fashion is an outlet people use to express themselves. People anxiously wait to see what the next trends are as seasons pass by. We buy anything that doesn’t break a bank, people buy a $10 shirt just because it’s cheap and they might not even wear it, but it’s all right, since it wasn’t expensive. As harmless and normal as that scenario sounds, the fashion industry has created the harmful concept that is “fast fashion”, in which stores sell an abundance of extremely cheap trendy clothing and “where deliveries are small and often, with stock delivered twice a week, for instant-access fashion.” (Cochrane)
Claudio, Luz. "Waste Couture: Environmental Impact of the Clothing Industry." Environmental Health Perspectives 115.9 (2007): A453-A454. Jstor. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.
For the past several decades, globalization has been a hot topic and it also anticipates every aspect of the world to connect each other. Likewise, globalization also allows consumers to have more access to catch up with updated fashion. The advantages of globalization bring a new philosophy called fast fashion, which holds quick response time and enhanced design in fashion apparel industry. In this paper, I will deliver By exploring all the aspects of each system, I will conclude the reason why fast fashion becomes the mainstream of the fashion apparel industry, and use one particular brand, Zara, as an example to discover the impact on consumer behavior in detail. Finally I will make some comments on the future of fast fashion and what luxury brands will react to this circumstance……..
Fast fashion allows consumers to get the latest styles presented in catwalks at a very cheap price. According to Walter Loeb, a former senior retail analyst for Morgan Stanley and a current contributor to Forbes, explains that companies like Forever 21, H&M, and Zara have made a push to get the latest styles in fashion into these stores as soon as possible, before the clothing becomes last season’s style. It is something that works perfectly for retail stores, as Loeb explains, “Many new ideas from the fashion shows that just finished in New York, Paris and Milan will soon be on Zara’s racks.” This means that stores are always in a rush to get their garments sold, before they are out of style six months later. One of the best benefits for retailers is that, because of the high demand of the latest styles, clothing sells very quickly and once it sales out instead of replenishing, they will just replace the garments with new styles coming fresh off the run floor (Stanley). This strongly encourages consumers to buy a piece of clothing that they like when they see it, otherwise there is a good chance it will not be there when they return. It is a perpetuating cycle whit no end in sight. This trend encourages shoppers to be more impulsive than they otherwise would be if he or she knew that the piece of clothing that they really liked was going to
As pointed by Parsons A.L (2002), there was increasing dependent on the relationship and customers is demanding to receive high standard of products and services for them to sustain the business in the intense manufacturing environment. Besides, Xu et al. (2008) has highlighted that supplier is developing a long-term relationship with their crucial suppliers to increase the competitiveness and to establish an effective and efficient supply chain. Trend (2005) also mentioned that work closely in partnership with suppliers is the only way to survive in today’s competitive business environment.
In the twenty-first-century fashion world, fashion no longer refers to clothing trends and accessories. It is any sort of production of goods and services that have a business or cultural value. Fashion is so important in today's time, not just socially but economically as well. In today’s time, nothing is able to exist without some sort of uniform or line of fashion. Fashion sets the tone in almost any area of activity no matter what event, place, or reason, people are always questioning what is proper to wear and if it is in. One concern or mutation in the fashion world is the speed of consumption and renewal by the logic of fashion that is being accelerated year after year, generating visible effects such as the depletion of natural resources and the alternation of the environment. Younger generations do not take interest in past events because most say that they were not born at the time when the event happened so it is not as important to them but it