Case Study : Supplying Fast Fashion

J.Crew as an iconic brand targeting young working professional by focusing on preppy and classy look failed in identifying brand focus. Also, their business model is performing poorly in the fast-fashion industry compare to traditional competitors, with its high prices, diverging quality, and undesirable brand image. Hence, the brand perception by customers has changed and many of them prefer to purchase the discounted products rather than full-priced items.

In the society of the year 2000, people “hold the period of youth sacred to education” (pg. 43). This bears some similarity to our own society, which has laws in place that require children to attend school and prohibit child labor. There are also laws in effect that protect workers’ health and safety. Moreover, similarly to Bellamy’s socialist vision, effective parents and teachers of today try to identify and build on children’s aptitudes, and people are (usually) able to choose their occupations.

Of the hundreds of named brand clothing that form part of the retail and fashion industry I chose to compare, for my analysis, Abercrombie & Fitch, Forever 21, American Eagle, and H&M. These stores are prominent, well-known for selling apparel, shoes, and accessories by the means of offering sales and promotions to their customers. This is a clever strategy for attracting customers, allowing them to believe that they bought goods at affordable, convenient prices – and not to mention the prestigious name prescribed to the clothing brands. Using keyhole.co as my main source, I obtained relevant and valuable information regarding the status of these brands. My intentions were to compare a period of 14 days, however, due to the limited access that I received from my free trial, the program only allowed me to see fewer of the dates than I anticipated. I want to take this opportunity and mention ahead of time that due to the various and distinctive products that are sold from these stores, when looking for the “spending capacity” I decided to focus on shirts/ jeans for men and women and compare the prices among them since each of these retailers carry those items and as a way to make this report easier to contrast and comprehend. Also, when approaching the section of “setting”, I screen-shotted some of the images on Instagram and made them into a collage to separate the type of clothes and trends that each of these brands sell currently. In the following modules

Nancy called CCIB LPA Perryman-French before she wrote the referral (she will call back with the numbers). Nancy met with Genica Columbell (DOB 01/13/99) who moved into the home in 2007. Genica stated that she had signed over her allowance to pay for her cell phone bill. Now she pays her own cell phone bill and still does not get her allowance. She also has had no new clothing for over a year, with the exception of an occaasional shirt, all her clothing is left over from a previous foster child. Genica also said that even though it is a house rule no one makes derogatory comments, even in jest, FP calls Genica "fat" before he says "just kidding." Her feelings are hurt. Genica also relayed a different version of an incident between Nyzig Smith

One the main features of H&M is the rapidity of shifts in demand and respond to customers’ needs. In fact when necessities of customers change, in only three weeks H&M can create new items. A normal clothes company needs six months to create new collections or articles. That’s why H&M does many researches all the time to find out new tendencies or variations of styles, giving shoppers last tendencies clothes.

Therefore it has become crucial to have an agile and responsive supply chain set up for both these companies. The main objective of the strategy is to reduce the lead times related to the process of getting new designs with good quality and right price into the retail stores in order to have the ability of responding to new market conditions and fashion trends. To achieve these objectives, Zara and Benetton have set up some supply chain strategies that resemble each other in many ways; they both focus on delivery, flexibility, efficiency and responsiveness to the production requirements of the company. Moreover, Zara controls every step of the value chain, closing information loop quickly, leveraging ownership of own asset, even trades off cost benefits to increase responsiveness of total system. In production stage, Zara has smaller batch productions compared with Benetton, this leads to a faster inventory turnover and quick response for Zara which is also equivalent of manufacturing's JIT to the retail sector. On the other hand, Benetton has based its supply network on two models of Industrialized Model and Commercial Model, sometimes referred as a dual supply chain. These models use two ways of planning. One is sequential approach aimed at minimizing costs and

The Spanish retail chain Zara has unique supply chain management practices that enable it to gain a competitive advantage over other fashion retailers in the industry. Zara’s rapid response time enables the firm to quickly respond to changing fashions while deliberately under producing products. This strategy, which is supported by competencies in logistic management, design and information systems, allows the company to maintain less inventory and higher profit margins and is a key factor to Zara’s success. The firm should continue to add value by seeking new opportunities to expand in the retail market and maintain their sustainable growth.

There Is a similar relation among the clothes. Several customers shop there based on the quality and prices as well as the features associated with the products. An advantage of the store is that it has a wide product mix and various offering in different categories and all these can be located at one place. This attracts a wide variety of customers. In line with their positioning of offering quality, trendy products, the brand is consistently updating its product line. The brand does not focus on innovation but rather on always leading trends. In relation to the product life cycle, clothing has a short life span from the first to last stage as tastes change easily. For this reason, it is important to constantly anticipate consumer tastes and preferences prior to launching a product so as to retain and possibly build customers loyalty. It is also necessary to develop a successful marketing strategy to display product offerings.

The popularity of cheap and fashionable clothing has been on the rise since the introduction of fast fashion to major clothing companies. The fashion world has become one of the dominating parts of consumer culture. However, the affordable clothing movement, in addition to the fast-paced garment work, has affected more than just our wallets. Advancement of new practices and clothing availability have contributed to many garment factories and businesses for clothing manufacturing. Nonetheless, it has led to influences in cultures, environments, and societies within many developing countries. Inadequate working conditions, low wages, pollution and furthering regulatory practices have resulted from the fast fashion movement.

‘Fashion industry is characterised by short product life cycles, volatile and unpredictable demand, tremendous product variety, long and inflexible supply processes and a complex supply chain.’

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

The clothing industry, as one of the most globalized industries in the world (Bonacich et al 1994), is currently undergoing a restructuring, especially the fast fashion sector. Fashion markets are synonymous with rapid changes and short product life cycles. Therefore, changes in consumer demand for newness and fashion trend force the emergence of ‘fast fashion’ strategy in retailers like Zara and H&M and shifts in the focus of competitive advantage from price towards quick response. That is to say, clothing firms, which are adopting global or offshore sourcing strategy, are not considered to have more competitive advantages as before.

The aim of this report is refer to operation management concepts and theories about Zara. This report broadens the fashion industry horizons, mainly subject of an investigation the "Fast Fashion". Definition Fast Fashion explained as a stream having more fashion cycles of chronic fashion cycle followed by high fashion houses. The function on which is based the Fast Fashion is faster and repetitive consumerism clothes so anytime customers to feel that they are in vogue. This model, which is known as Quick Response finds response by large companies like Zara, referred to in more detail in the working. The background of today's society is clearly consumer. Made ambitious efforts by corporations around the world, in order to meet the

The following article will mainly focus on aspects of supply chain and logistics management of fashion related Retailer Company named Zara, which is expected to boost the value of customers, and sustainability concept is considered to be added benefit to the Zara Company. The advantage is mainly because of Zara company’s designing models that are related with business and they are compared with benefits and disadvantages with other companies which have seen success and also highlight on companies that are not successful. The business related strategies and management of supply chain operations are compared between Zara Company and with other companies like Dell and Myers. The difference in strategies and success is compared between Zara and Dell and also Myers with Zara.

This work is an introduction to the fashion industry of Pakistan which has made quite a lot of progress in just a few years. Ten to fifteen years from now, this industry was still unknown to actually exist to the masses. Later with the formation of fashion councils and education centers under the enthusiastic few who wanted to make a difference and promulgate this very institution of fashion, did the very fashion industry took its concrete contour from the old tailor culture that formerly existed. Today it is one of the most progressing industries in the country.