Fashion Retailer Case Study

Badar and Sammidi (2013) found that information collection and utilization in supply chain management is of vital importance. Badar & Sammidi (2013) also found that profits can be maximized by increasing efficiencies in the supply chain. Societal and technological trends have led to consumers who increasingly expect products and services to be quickly available (Parnell, 2014). A just-in-time inventory system based on up-to-date data prediction models that allows for quicker order fulfillment, and better in stock supplies when and where customers need the items, should continue to bode well for Home Depot long term. It will be difficult for Home Depot to distinguish itself from Lowe’s in other meaningful ways which may force it to deviate functional strategies away from the low-cost corporate strategy. Attempting to differentiate itself in other ways may cause serious misalignments in its strategies and cause an unnecessary decline in

It is becoming apparent that the ever changing environment in the global marketplace requires a swifter response time from businesses and their supply chains. The era when production was moved overseas, so businesses can take advantage of low-cost labor is coming to an end, because businesses are not only competing on price but also on time. The owner of Zara, a Spanish clothing store knows this first hand, and has turned supply chain management on its ear, making his company the “envy of the industry” (Ferdows, Lewis, & Machuca, 2004).

Companies in the retail industry operate in a high price elasticity environment as there is not much product differentiation to leverage. Buyers face almost no switching cost if they chose a substitute offering better value. On the contrary, large and diverse population making small purchases works in favor of the industry. No one individual or a small group has the power to significantly impact the industry, but overall buyers enjoy have a high bargaining power in the industry.

During the past decade, retail markets have undergone many changes in their processes, services, and formats. The last part of distribution of the market strategy, retailing serves as a bridge between the final consumer and the mass producers of products. Retailing has reached every corner of the globe, and Wal-Mart has been eying areas where the

As we all know, the retail industry is very crucial and is highly competitive. As this company

Fast fashion is a business strategy, a trend, and an expectation for American consumers. Fast fashion is a way for designs to move quickly and for retailers to show the latest trends in fashion. It consists of trendy, cheap clothing that can be moved throughout the fashion cycle at an astonishingly fast pace in order to get into stores and outlets for consumers to purchase (Cline, 2012, pg. 101). Not just Americans, but consumers around the world have a mindset of wanting fashionable, good quality, and less expensive products that can be used while “popular”, then thrown away when outdated. Fast fashion is a consumer mindset and a way to move endless amounts of clothing through a retailers’ doors in order to make a lot of money on what consumers

Retail stores, are one of the biggest and largest businesses around the world. They produce thousands of hundreds in revenues and they are some of the biggest employers industries. WALL-MART, IKEA, TESCO, ARGOS, MACYS, WALLGREENS and OFICCE DEPOT are some of the well-known retail stores that supply us every day with different kind of goods and services. For a better understanding, one of the main definitions of retail is: “...store commonly a shop or stall for the retail sale of commodities, but also a place where wholesale supplies are kept, exhibited, or sold…” What this means

Effective supply chain management can provide an important competitive advantage for a business marketer, resulting in improved communication and involvement among members of the chain, increased motivation, and decreased costs. Tracking the movement of and demand for components used to manufacture a product across a variety of potential and actual suppliers, provides insight and the ability to respond instantly to shortages, surpluses, and changes in market conditions. It seeks to optimize production, decrease manufacturing time, minimize inventory, streamline order fulfillment, and reduce cost.

Today’s customers are more aware and empowered, and have more bargaining power due to the exponential increase in competition – direct, indirect or substitute. In retailing, they want hassle-free shopping, have less time at their disposal to locate the shop and the merchandise and are reluctant to keep waiting. The modern format retail stores are doing their best to anticipate the customer’s demands and are going all out to redesign their store interiors, offer more choices in varieties and assortments, and are giving as many services as feasible.

It shows that between 2004 and 2007, total retail growth was only 4.6% while online retail was increased by 130% (The Times 100, NA) (Table 5). With no doubt, it seems more difficult for retail shops to survive, but Lindquist (2002) stated that shoppers prefer to integrate internet shopping with other forms of shopping (Lindquist et al., 2002). The supply chain of Topshop and its changes can help us to understand how retail shops nowadays adjust its position in the

American Apparel, is an American multi-national clothing manufacturer, distributor and retailer since 1988based in Los Angeles, California. Dov Charney, a Canadian business man was a founder and former CEO of the company. He was involved in nearly every part of the business process from design and manufacturing to marketing. The Ernst & Young named Charney Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004. He was also termed "Man of the Year" by various fashion

An additional method Zara utilizes to ensure the right product is produced is to constantly monitoring the sells at every store in real time through the use of computers. Sells managers are the individuals that play out this strategy. When the clothing sells well or does not sell well, they can quickly let the designers know to swiftly create new designs (“Case 3-4. Continued Growth for Zara and Inditex”, 2013). However, the competition is changing their strategies in an attempt to successfully compete with Zara. The methods that Zara has implemented to ensure fast fashion is truly fast has pressured the competition into reducing their lead times on stocking their stores (Hayes & Jones, 2006).

The recent recession has hurt the entire retail market and regaining profits will be a constant challenge for the entire industry. In order to remain competitive, Ann Krill states,” value and versatility have become very important. She needs an incentive to shop.” (Hymowitz, 2012) Ms. Krill goes on to say,” I think in uncertain economic times, value becomes more important...” (Hymowitz, 2012)

Hugo Boss has become known as an industry trend setter for its high quality men’s and women’s fashion apparel, shoes, and accessories. Product leadership, intimate knowledge of their market and customers, and operational excellence are what distinguish the company from others in the luxury fashion goods industry. From an operational perspective, the variability that exists as a result of designing and manufacturing short run fashion products is high. This perpetual shifting of demands and preferences makes it difficult to maintain accurate industry forecasts that result in high risk actions as manufacturing products with no guarantee of sale leading to large scale inventory systems.

The world has become fascinated towards the fashion. The first thing need to be considered is Fashion; it can be behavior, implementing new ideas on clothing’s, hairstyle, decorations and so on which are automatically linked to our day to day activities. In today’s context, fast fashion has become a trend to a fashion industry patterns yet delivered utilizing less costly materials to guarantee a low cost tag. Many companies have been successful and unsuccessful to earn a trust from their customer. For the matter of success level it depends on how innovativeness they are and also applies the principle of supply chain and logistic management activities for the growth of their