Merchandising: Zara & Hmv

The report includes Mary Katrantzou’s strategic approach to the retail industry including their pricing, promotion, distribution and marketing strategies as well as an analysis on their major strengths and weakness, in addition to their opportunities and threats. With Mary Katrantzou competing in a highly competitive market, the information that was found summarises the on going success of the company and how it continually stays effective and offers the unique and unseen designs in the fashion industry.

This relatively recent phenomenon has been extensively discussed in the fashion press. It has been suggested (Carruthers, 2003) that Zara’s entry to the UK acted as a catalyst for other retailers competing in the same market segment to attempt to improve their own response times. The aim of this research is to establish the effect that lead-time compression has on the success of fashion retailers. In order to achieve this aim, three objectives were identified as follows: (1) identify and describe techniques used to achieve lead-time compression and evaluate their benefits; (2) judge the contribution that following a fast fashion strategy makes to the success of fashion retailers; and (3) assess if and how lead-times will be reduced in future.

This report looks into River Island store visit in Brent Cross Shopping Centre on 15th of November 2016. With over 60 years of experience River Island is well-know brand on the High Street fashion, which offers stylish and affordable fashion items for its customer. It has over 350 stores across the UK, Ireland and internationally throughout Asia, the Middle East and Europe. (Riverisland.com) The main aim of this report is to overlook stores visual merchandising, layout, customer service and other factors based on a stores visit and identify the main strengths and weaknesses among its competitors. As we can see from the market positioning below in terms of quality and price River Island biggest competitors are Zara and Topshop online and retail stores. Turning to recent financial perfomance, the privately-owned fashion retailer did not publish its recent performance, just in 2015 it has announced a 69.4% increase in pre-tax profits to £149.1m for the year to December 27, as turnover increased 10.4% to £925.8m (Geoghegan,2015). This shows, that River Island is fast-growing and successful apparel retailer in these days.

prices/value: The price of the products need to be reasonable compare to the value and quality it has. The consumer will also compare the price with other competitors and its quality and efficiency of the products. The company need to

HMV is a limited company of CDs, DVDs, Film, Music, games and Technology products. It has Over 120 Stores all over the UK, offers different verities of Movies, Music, Headphones and Ipads as well. HMV’s opened its first store at Oxford Street on 20th July 1921. Hmv started expanding in 1990s and reached to its maturity stage in late 1990s till 2004. At the end of 1990s HMV’s sales started slowing down because of the introduction of digital media. HMV’s sales fell year by year since 2004 and then they have introduced new and versatile media to regain its position as the home of entertainment (HMV, 2014).

merchandise two to three times each week, whereas most dothing retailers get large shipments on a seasonal basis, four to six

A company, such as H&M for example, faces many challenges because selling clothes is a very competitive field. One of the challenges H&M face is the competition of other clothing stores, such as Zara’s and Forever21-these clothing stores sell very similar products at different prices. H&M is known for their originality, convenience and great prices but they are not the only company providing these benefits. Forever21 provides their audience with

In some cases, consumers use careful calculations and logical thinking before purchase the product that they want. Customers always prefer the best, and would like to be profited every time. Customers evaluate products based on chosen criteria such as performance, durability, warranty, price, and the quality. In order for a marketing organization, they know that what benefit that the consumers are seeking for is the

The preferences of the customers is taken care and it is demand driven and customer oriented.

The Zara's Fashion stores and on understanding the impact of purchasing of supply chain strategies. Further Zara Fashion Stores facing no doubt many Disadvantages in their distribution systems, however, these advantages are offset by the advantages. While ZARA strategies of vertical and horizontal integration also giving the great competitive advantageous.

Zara is a fashion company founded by Amancio Ortega in Spain in 1975. It is part of Inditex holding company, a large fashion retail chain that operates five other clothing brands. Since its inception, Zara has been financially very successful as it contributes the most to Inditex’s overall revenue. Also, Zara’s fast growth is represented by its massive global presence; it has stores all over the world from Americas to Middle East to Europe, its principal market. In my analysis, Zara’s competitive advantage lies in its ability to mass produce a large range of highly demanded latest designer clothes faster than its other competitors in the industry. By virtue of being first in the

Vertical integration, a distinctive feature of Zara’s business model, has allowed the company to successfully develop a strong merchandising strategy. This strategy has led Zara to create a climate of scarcity and opportunity as well as a fast-fashion system. However, Zara’s strategy creates some weaknesses. Their vertical integration has more advantages than drawbacks but it is important to recognize its limitations. Vertical integration often leads to the inability to acquire economies of scale, which means Zara cannot gain the advantages of producing large quantities of goods for a discounted rate. Higher costs are then incurred for the Inditex

The aim of this report is to examine the characteristics of merchandise assortment and store design within two retail companies to identify constituents that can have a negative and positive influence on the stores. Apparel department of two discount department stores were selected and observed in the constituents that create their merchandise assortment and store design. Apparel departments of Target and Big W at Fountain Gate in Victoria, Australia were selected as locale of study.

The goods must also be delivered at the right time that is the goods must be provided as and when it’s needed. For example for a time bound or seasonal product like daily graphic, rain coat, the product will be of no use to the customer when it is supplied late.

Merchandising as an activity starts with market research and ends with sale of merchandise. The chain of intermediate activities between these forms the functions of merchandising. Some of these activities are store space – buy – price – display – sale, while others are source – sample – cost – production – quality – packing – delivery. We can thus attribute these activities to two segments of the chain. The Retail segment and the Vendor segment.