Zara case operation management

The business idea of Zara is to link customer demand to manufacturing, and to link manufacturing to distribution. And based on this general idea, Zara has several essential elements for its business model. First, speed and decision making, which means that in the external level, Zara need to respond very quickly to demands of target customers, and always keep in style. While for the inside, Zara treasure intelligence and judgment of common employees who enjoy a great deal of autonomy. Second, its marketing, merchandising and advertising strategy. Zara does not spend on virtually advertising, while it spends heavily on stores, and no selling online because of

Another way there strategy contributors to their success is that they have the capability to keep a significant amount of product in home soil in there won factories and reserve approximately 85% of their capacity for seasonal adjustments this way they will be able to rapidly respond to unexpected trends in the industry. Additionally they use foreign factories as many other companies do as cost is much cheaper which allows production to increase and distrusted accordingly, however for fast fashion items Zara produces in

No business in this type of industry has total control over the market price and there are no barriers to entry and exit. Because of its monopolistically competitive playing grounds, Zara’s conduct is to increase its market power by producing demand for its heterogeneous products. Through differentiation and cost leadership, Zara attempts to increase market demand by offering new items weekly while keeping a low inventory, thus making its products unique and attractive to consumers. Because of its backward vertical integration model, Zara creates a strong synergy throughout its production process. Zara has sustained a competitive advantage globally by expanding into new markets and becoming more efficient. In a monopolistically competitive industry, Zara is expected to make profits in the short run but will break even in the long run because demand will decrease as average total costs increase. This means in the long run, a monopolistically competitive firm, such as Zara, will make zero economic profit (AmosWEB, 2001).

Zara’s strategy is to offer cutting edge fashion at affordable prices by following fashion and identifying which styles are “hot”, and quickly getting the latest styles into stores. They can move from identifying a trend to having clothes ready for sale within 30 days (whereas most retailers take 4-12 months). This is made possible by controlling almost the whole garment supply chain from design to retail.

The basic strategy for fighting competition is to attract buyers at lower prices, more unique designs, high-quality design, efficient customer service and solid image brand. Thus bargaining power of buyer for apparel industry is high as the products falls under the basic needs in human lives. There is no much difference in terms of products offered by the apparel company, so if buyer is unhappy with the product or service they can easily switch to another brand. Thus, Zara are trying to strengthen its position in the market by using their unique strategy by giving priority to buyer to meet their special needs.

The supply chain from raw material to consumer it's from design and production to distribution and retailing. Zara has unique and rabid supply chain today. Design and production are internal process and are done in company. At Zara's headquarters, there are creative teams of three hundred professionals doing a design process. They responsible for design the designs which will satisfy customer needs and keep pace with fashion. Zara can take a product from concept through design, manufacturing, and store-shelf placement in as

Zara uses vertical integration, in a vertical integration several stages of production and distribution of a commodity are influenced by a single company.

In comparison to competitors, Zara’s business strategy, in regards to strategic partnerships and cost of production, provide for a strategic competitive advantage. Zara, unlike its competitors such as Gap, Benetton, and H&M, does not use Asian outsourcing. Eighty percent of Zara’s materials are manufactured in Europe, with 50% made in Zara controlled facilities in the Galicia region of Spain near headquarters. Most of Zara’s competitors have 100% outsourcing to cheap Asian countries. Though the cost of production in Spain is 17-20% more expensive than Asia, Zara does have a competitive advantage over its competitors in regards to operations. The local strategic partnerships that Zara maintains with manufacturers in Europe allow for a product throughput time of 3-4 weeks from conception to distribution. To make this happen, the company designs and cuts its fabric in-house and it acquires fabrics in only four colours to keep costs low. The proximity of these suppliers gives Zara great flexibility in adapting their product lines based on up to date market trends and consumer behaviour. It also decreases costs of holding inventory. Zara’s competitors, through outsourcing to Asian countries such as China, sacrifice the benefits of proximity for low labour and production costs.

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.

An interesting fact is their supply chain for the majority of their product is located close to their distribution centers. Their distribution centers are located in Spain and the designer ware is produced in Morocco, Portugal, and Turkey (“Case 3-4. Continued Growth for Zara and Inditex,” 2013). This ensures that new designs are produced and shipped quickly to their stores. This plan is reasonably different from their competition.

In recent year, Zara is well-known as the world’s largest retailer and the most favorite fashion brands in the world to the people in their 20s-30s and children. Its success doesn’t come from just only what it sells but how it sells them.

This report is mainly focusing on studies of marketing strategy. By analyzing and discussing the case of Zara, we will be able to have a more in depth analysis of companies and their marketing strategies.

IV. Product information and inventory management allows it to manage thousands of fabric and trim specifications, design specification as well as their physical inventory gives Zara team the capability to design a garment with available stocks rather than having to order and wait for the material to come in.

Zara was first came into existence and well established in the year 1975 and it is under the control of Spanish owner Amanico Ortega Gaona. Firstly the store which is local based manufacturing company was dealing with Zara products which include outlets especially for orders which are cancelled related to lingerie and women wear. These relationships slowly lead to develop into strong relationship between retailer and producer of the products (Ferdows et al, 2003). The Company Zara was in collaboration with parent company called Inditex, both these companies mainly focused on customer demand and supply products as per needs of customers and able to establish supply chain

Until now, every garment that is product in Zara’s factories around the world has to travel back to Spain in order to go through quality controls, and is then send to its distributors. But the continuous flows of goods from all the productions sites to Spain and from Spain to the markets of sell, as well as the relative communication flows necessary to such a business model will inevitably slow down as Zara will have to deal with a constantly growing number of customers. Thus, the highly centralized information system of Zara seems not to be easily applicable in Asia, in addition to being time and money consuming.