What Australian Fashion Retailers Can Learn from Zara's Product Management Process

Based off of my last journal about the fashion industry and how it has an economic impact. Recently a friend of mine opened up a fashion boutique in a mall. He has always been into fashion probably the most fashion intellectual person I know. In the boutique my friend has inventory ranging from shoes, hoodies, jeans, accessories, etc. All the inventory are clothes or shoes that are either hard to find or sold out due to the demand of the product being higher than the supply. The shoe prices range from $200-$2000 depending on what shoe you are looking at. The prices of clothes are practically the same price range as the shoes. One of the clothing brands that are probably in my opinion the grail items in the boutique is the collection of clothes

This expansion demonstrates how the luxury industry is now run by massive corporations whose focus is only on growth, visibility, brand awareness, advertising, and most importantly, PROFITS! With growth and expansion, has come a decrease in quality and rarity. The luxury garments produced are mostly not handmade but are even outsourced to large factories in places such as China and Turkey. Also, to meet quarterly turnover projections, “designers churn(ed) out increasingly trendy collections of clothes, handbags, and shoes.” (Thomas, Pg. 246) With hundreds of new stores around the globe the surplus of designer labeled merchandise is immense hence, the proliferation of outlet malls.

First, there are good numbers in the higher income categories in Australia. Second, there are an increasing high income earners and middle class which present a great market opportunity. Third, the Australia’s brand conscious society is well suited to the department store concept. Also, advanced computer-based technology and stable political environment contribute to a favourable business climate. The only drawback is economic uncertainty which hinders firms future strategic direction.

Helen’s is an upmarket fashion boutique store in Sydney’s east. Falling sales have been reflected by surveys that reveal consumers view the business as outdated and no longer relevant to consumers’ needs. Strong competition in the area has placed considerable pressure on pricing. The business’s target market, 50-65 year old females, no longer dominated the now younger demographic character of the area.

The apparel store industry within the USA is a highly competitive market, consisting of number of companies that are willing to fight for their share of the market. To remain afloat in this business, corporations must be highly innovative, price-conscious, knowing the trend, and with great responses to consumer needs. Each company within this industry must be aware of the competitors’ move, trying to match every trends and benefits offered by another, in order to steal the average consumers. Market-alertness is the key to survival; each company must balance marketing strategies and customer-service, responding to consumer demands within the shortest processing time

The Australian department store sector has undergone significant change over the past decade. The discount department store is increasingly competitive. Financial crisis has resulted in higher unemployment rate and lower consumer sentiment, effecting retailing sales. However, these negative events have been partially offset by the Federal Government’s economic stimulus package and reduction of official interest rates. In non-food industry of Australia, there are restrictive property and zoning laws, causing barriers for entrants. The leading retailers such as Myer and David Jones have great brand identification and customer loyalty. Their large scale and mature supply chains ensure their cost

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

As part of the Course ADO13, Fashion and Textile Merchandising at RMIT University, we (Rebekah Best, Vy Costen, Daniyal Malik, Jessica Pola and Madeline Whelan) have created the following formal Marketing Plan, which was conducted on the Australian fashion retailer, Bardot. This Marketing Plan was created to assist Bardot in analysing their current situation, and to create strategies to improve their future. The base research performed for valid

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.

2. Richard M. Johns (2006). The Apparel Industry. 2nd ed. UK, London: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.. 1-124.

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).

Country road has been well established as an Australian brand in Australia before it engaged in globalization. Having a strong foothold in the Australia fashion, it is one of the most representable and well-favoured fashion brands in Australia. With its growing success, this gave the firm the confidence to venture into the global market and had the capabilities to do so after Myer Emporium

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 clothing industry in South Africa has always been an industry where there is intense rivalry between the companies. There are main companies in the industry namely Edgars, Woolworths Truworths, but there are smaller retail companies that enter the market that can satisfy the demand of the consumer’s better.

Zara is a clothing and accessories retailer selling stylish apparel at affordable prices, and it is also the most profitable brand of the Spanish clothing retail group Inditex SA. Ortega planned for this new Zara outlet, located near his factory in La Coruna in northern Spain, to sell this overstock merchandise himself. Since then, Zara has expanded into 500 stores in 68 countries as of January 2007 and has become a leader in customized fashion retailing. This assignment presents core competencies to help Zara achieve competitive advantages in fashion industry. Besides, we also offer five competitive objectives about quality, speed, flexibility, dependability and cost to evaluate