Zara: It for Fast Fashion

Zara’s IT expenditures are low by fashion industry standards. The spectacular benefits reaped by Zara from the deployment of technology have resulted from targeting technology investment at the points in the value chain where it has the greatest impact, and not from the sheer magnitude of the investment. This is in stark contrast to Prada’s experience with in-store technology deployment.

Hence, technology is bettering reliability and speed with which information is divulged (Porter, 1980). Hand-held computers or PDA’s are utilized by Zara to collect information on consumer needs between retail stores and the factory in La Coruna. This along with regular telephone conversations between store managers and marketing specialists are one of the reasons that Zara’s information network is so effective. The utilization of PDA’s can be done by any company; it is Zara’s determination not to allow important information to fall by the wayside that assists with its success. PDAs are connected to the store 's point-of-sale (POS) system, enabling managers to see how garments rank by sales. In as little as an hour, managers can send information that combine the hard data captured at the POS intermixed with acumen on what customers would like to see. All of this data allows Zara to design and produce styles and orders based on feedback rather than guesswork. Hence, Zara avoids costly overproduction and the consequent sales and mark-downs that are so widespread in the fast fashion industry (Rohwedder and Johnson, 2008).

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.

Yes, the POS terminals were out-dated and were being backed by DOS operating system which Microsoft no longer supported. They are running a risk of the product becoming obsolete and being unable to maintain support from vendors. Up-to-date operating system would provide more user friendly mechanisms, more functionality, thus allowing effective communication between stores and headquarters. New modern operating systems would allow simple standardisation and sharing of data across the board. Modern operating systems also provide more security platforms (such as credit card details), inventory management, and report generation for decision making. Also it allows real time transactions to be recorded.

Throughout the 1980’s, it became the pre-eminent operating systems of personal computers, until another operating system, DR-DOS, was released by a company called Digital Research. Critics claim that this operating system never had a chance at gaining a fair share of the market because Microsoft deliberately slowed DR-DOS’s sales by announcing a better version of MS-DOS was on its way (Newman).

What Bruno Sanchez Ocampo couldn’t see, was that even though the system was working properly, there were several gaps that a new system could fulfill efficiently. The lack of constant communication with the headquarters could be taken as a perfect example. The cost of having only one daily communication after the store was closed could be simply solved by a new wireless system. Having only one modem connected POS per store turned day to day operation into highly unproductive situation, not to say that using floppy disk and carrying them around the store each time was extremely out of date by the year 2003. A major lack in the system was that there was no possibility of sharing data between the POS and the PDA. As a consequence there was a complete miscommunication between the point of sales and the personal display assistants. Furthermore, another flaw in the system was the impossibility of communication between the different stores. This is a huge opportunity cost if we think about the internal supply that could be provided by the nearby stores. Even though Zara made an effort and changed the hardware of the POS, this seemed to be not enough. The software was still run by DOS and there was no more support for that kind of program.

Second, in fulfillment, we can also see speed in responding to demand. For example, the replenishment, as well as production will be optimized according to supply and demand as quickly as possible. Besides, the fulfillment will commonly completed in one or two days, clothes flowed quickly, and without stopping, from factories to DCs to stores, where they were immediately put on the sales floor. Third, in design and manufacturing, we can find how Zara respond quickly to demand. Zara brought out new items continuously throughout the year, including both changes to existing garments and entirely new creations. The network of production had made design from conception through production and into the DC in as little as three weeks. Besides, Zara did not have to predict what would be selling six months, or even one month, in the future; it could continuously sense what customers wanted to buy and respond “on the fly.” All these operations reflect the speed-chasing and target-oriented nature of Zara business.

With which of the international competitors listed in the case is it most interesting to compare Inditex’s financial results? What do comparisons indicate about Inditex’s relative operating economics? Its relative capital efficiency?

point of sale system. The POS system is a perpetual inventory counting method that electronically records items immediately upon their point of sale (Stevenson, 2015, pg. 552). In other words, as a cashier scans a customer 's groceries, each scanned item is automatically recorded in the system and deducted from the store’s inventory. Implementing a point of sale would benefit a business’s inventory management function in several ways. First, the POS system will provide managers with a continuous flow of updated information (Stevenson, 2015, pg. 552). As a result, the information will provide more accuracy when used for sales forecasts and analysis, which substantially affect inventory decisions. Continuously, this inventory system would also allow greater flexibility in the sense that it can be wirelessly linked to the main company’s inventory system, creating a network of the company’s inventory systems. The POS system is capable of tracking many operations at once and can be modified according to management’s needs (MacCarthy, n.d.). This flexibility would undoubtedly benefit a large company like Wegman’s with many store locations. Lastly, the system is able to help businesses maintain a high level of customer service. Because the system gives customers a receipt with the price and quantity of each item purchased, the customer is able to see exactly what he or she purchased. This practice

Zara International is considered a high end clothing store that is affordable. Due to its quality in fashion, low prices and immediate availability, popular stores such as Gap and H&M fail to keep up with Zara’s success. Zara’s well known tactic of fast fashion has separated them from their competition. The ‘fast fashion’ objective is to distribute top trends of fashion within the runway to customers by selling them in local stores. Zara has been able to achieve the fast fashion perspective by hiring approximately 200 people that will assist in getting these trends out in stores within a matter of weeks.

Zara’s IT was positioned in the support mode quadrant on the IT strategic impact grid. This demonstrates that Zara's leadership team understood that their corporate strategy focused on the expansion of the number of stores selling of high fashion, short life span clothing to young fashion conscious, city dwellers. There was a relatively low need for reliability and strategic IT, it simply existed to support employees activities (Nolan and McFarlan, 2005). By implementing a new POS system Zara could potentially have come up against the following key risks:

It might not be in the retailer’s best interest to perform such upgrade, as the new system will replace three of the existing legacy systems in terms of ordering and fulfillment. The IS department will perceive such upgrade as a radical move and is expected to show high resistance in response to it. Even though Zara has a decentralized decision making process, the retailer’s IS department exercises absolute autonomy on the IT infrastructure and design. The fact that “only one person had left the department” in the past 10 years further confirms that the retailer is suffering from cognitive and action inertia, and thus creating a huge barrier for such

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.

Quick response of Zara leads it to be successful in the fashion clothing industry. Zara adopts international strategy for its operation. With vertical integration, it benefits Zara in cost aspect, however, it involves some risks. Due to our anaylysis on Zara’s operations, some of the recommendations are made to facilitate its further improvements.

Recent statistical analysis of implementing VMI in the clothing industry has shown a substantial increase in sales and inventory consistency. According to the research, POS systems provided a 37% sales increase along with 37% increase in sales forecasting (Chain Store Age, 2001)