...Zara Case Study 1. Case Summary The Zara case study is a case of the fundamental of whether or not to upgrade an IT system which already works, in this case a POS operating system that uses DOS, to more modern operating systems that includes more functionality to meet new demands. Zara is a chain fashion store around Europe, Middle East, Africa, and South America that was founded by Amancio Ortega, in 1975. The first store and main headquarters was found in La Cournia, Spain. Mr. Ortega believed and implemented his business model that: Retailing and manufacturing needed to be closely linked. This created the backbone for Zara’s everyday functionality to have all the stores communicate with the main distributors and distribution centers (DCs) which in turn communicated directly to the manufactures. As a result, supply was meet with demand with ease and little latency. This was all made possible through the use of technology and Zara’s IT department. Salgado Badas, the head of the IT, along with Bruno Sanchez Ocampo, were the main decision makers and brains behind the IT of Zara. For the past decade, Zara has implemented POS systems in each store that would have a direct connection via modem to the main headquarters in La Coruna. Managers on a daily basis transmit comprehensive sales information and other data back to La Coruna. In 2003, PDA’s were also used for ordering and also for tasks such as handling garment returns to DCs and transmitting...
Words: 1656 - Pages: 7
...Internationnal marketing Case study – Zara Question 1 The close relationship between manufacturing and retailing make Zara different from the others specialty apparel retailers. His motto could be « fast and fashion ». Zara controls all phases of production of its clothing from design to distribution. A choice taken by the will of the company to « adapt to the client's request in minimum time.», for Zara, the most important thing is time. Zara has a highly flexible tool for producing close to its customers and an efficient and quick chain information system. Zara designers are constantly listening to advice and comments from store managers. During their regular contact, the store managers give suggestions, advice and criticisms on products and on the choice that should be taken thanks to the retail experiences with customers. .It allows to Zara to be the first company to offer the new fashion garments, Zara create a sort of rareness. To control his production, Zara produces a lot in Spain with exclusive suppliers, it give to Zara a great reactivity and a good control. Zara reduces also inventory risk and delays thanks to limited series. Zara is able to deliver all of its stores since their huge warehouse which centralized the production, it limits intermediaries, reduce stocks, and delays. One of the main difference between Zara and H&M is that H&M has not the quickness, the reactivity of his production tool and the short delays that Zara can have because H&M...
Words: 678 - Pages: 3
...Zara: Staying Fast and Fresh Wance Tacconelli Donghua University Shanghai Contents • • • • Historical background Overview of the Inditex Group Zara’s business model The competitive landscape – The Gap, H&M, Fast Retailing (Uniqlo) • Zara’s global store and online expansion • Questions Zara Case Study 2 Corporate history (1 of 2) • 1963: establishment of clothing production company in A Coruῆa, Spain • 1975: first Zara store opens in A Coruῆa • 1985: Inditex Group is established • 1989: first international Zara store opens in Portugal Zara Case Study 3 Corporate history (2 of 2) • 1990s: acquisition of brands Massimo Dutti and Stradivarius • 2001: Inditex IPO • 2006: first Zara store opens in China • 2010: first Zara store opens in India • 2010: Zara launches first online store Zara Case Study 4 Inditex’s performance indicators, 2012 • Net income totalled 2.3 billion euros, an increase of 22% from 2011 • 6,009 stores, 482 more than a year earlier • Online store network covers 23 markets, with new launches in China and Canada • Creation of 10,802 new jobs in 2012, bringing workforce to 120,314 employees Zara Case Study 5 Inditex Group Brand Portfolio (1 of 8) Zara • Fashionable, yet affordable clothes for a wide range of people, cultures and generations, who, despite their differences, all share a special fondness for fashion • 1751 stores in 86 countries • www.zara.com Zara Case Study 6 Inditex Group Brand Portfolio (2 of 8) ...
Words: 967 - Pages: 4
...Zara: Fast Fashion Case Study IEOR 153 Logistics Network Design and Supply Chain Management Niko Katigbak Regine Labog Kevin Leung Ruoyun Li Miranda Ortiz Michelle Papilla Spring 2011 Professor Kaminsky UC Berkeley I. Background Inditex, founded by Amancio Ortega, operates six different chains: Zara, Massimo Dutti, Pull&Bear, Bershka, Stradivarius, and Oysho. Since 2006 when the case was written, Inditex has added Zara Home and Uterque to its collection.1 The retail chains were meant to operate as separate business units within a structure, which included six support areas and nine corporate departments. Each chain addressed different segments of the market, but all share the same goal: to dominate their segment using a flexible business model that could be expanded on an international scale. As the parent company, Inditex focused on providing the corporate services to its respectable chains so that they could accomplish their goals. As a global apparel firm, Inditex’s main development strategy for international expansion is to become the sole or majority shareholder. However, for small or culturally different markets, it extended franchising agreements to leading local retail companies. For countries with l arge barriers to entry and an appealing customer base, Inditex created joint ventures with the possibility of later buying out its partner. Despite the different approaches used to enter into the international market, Zara has shown that there...
Words: 3538 - Pages: 15
...ZARA Case Study By Chander Shekhar Sibal (WMP 6015) A Case Study submitted in fulfillment of the assignments for MIS WMP 2013 [pic] Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow Noida Campus 2011 Zara Case Study Q. 1. Zara is successful in managing IT. Using your learning’s from the case, explain how Zara is able to get productivity benefits from IT The firm tripled in size between 1996 and 2000, then skyrocketed from $2.43 billion in 2001 to $13.6 billion in 2007. By August 2008, sales edged ahead of Gap, making Inditex the world’s largest fashion retailer1. While the firm supports eight brands, Zara is unquestionably the firm’s crown jewel and growth engine, accounting for roughly two-thirds of sales2.The blend of technology-enabled strategy that Zara has unleashed seems to break all of the rules in the fashion industry. a) Efficiency in Design teams Rather than create trends by pushing new lines via catwalk fashion shows, Zara prefers to follow with designs where there’s evidence of customer demand. Data on what sells and what customers want to see goes directly to “The Cube” in La Coruña, where teams of some 300 designers crank out an astonishing 30,000 items a year. b) Speed of execution in bringing a new product idea to store & response to change In the fickle world of fashion, even seemingly well-targeted designs could go out of favor in the months it takes to get plans to contract manufacturers, tool up production...
Words: 839 - Pages: 4
...MARKETING CASE STUDY ZARA: THE SPANISH RETAILER GOES TO THE TOP OF WORLD FASHION Professor: Jennifer Stack Student: Martina Sekuloska San Sebastian October,2014 International marketing [ZARA:THE SPANISH RETAILER GOES TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD FASHION] INTRODUCTION Inditex is a fashion retailer which dates back to 1963 when it started life in a small workshop making woman’s clothing. Today it has more than 6.460 stores all over the world (Inditex, 2014). Officially it all started with the launch of the first Zara store in La coruña, north-west of Spain in 1975. At that time the textile maker Amancio Ortega decided to open his own store after years of work in the textile industry. This was followed by the brand’s internationalization at the end of the 1980s and the successive launch of several another retail concepts: Pull&Bear, Massimo Duti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterqüe. Today, Inditex is considered to be the greatest fashion retail group, and its founder Amancio Ortega, the richest person in Spain. Zara is the flagship chain of the Inditex Group which generates nearly 65% of the net sales of the group (Inditex annual report 2013). It encompasses many different styles, from daily clothes, to more formal elegant clothes for women, men and children. This case study tackles the challenges of being the world’s fashion retailer, the sustainability of the competitive strategy, and the group’s internationalization process. CASE QUESTIONS...
Words: 3109 - Pages: 13
...Zara Case Study - Answer the following questions using both the case in the text and online research. Citations (within the text) and a bibliography are required. Be sure to provide an overview of the case in a short paragraph prior to answering each question. List the question you are answering prior to your answer. Vertical Supply Chain Zara uses a vertical supply chain, which is an uncommon strategy in the fashion industry. A company that operates in a vertically integrated strategy has total control of the various business activities, such as designing, manufacturing, sourcing, and to distribution to retail stores. This gives the company total business management. 1. As completely as possible, explain the supply chain for Zara from raw materials to consumer purchase. (5 points) Zara makes about 40% of their raw material (fabric) and produces more than half of its own clothes. (Kotler and Armstrong). The remaining 60% is outsourced from within Spain, mostly from the La Curuna. Designing of clothes at Zara is done by creative teams of over 300 professionals at the headquarters in La Curuna, Spain. (Supply Chain Brain). After the designers complete a design they are sent to Zara’s production system to cut the fabric. The design is then sent for sewing by one of several hundred local cooperatives. After sewing, the clothes are returned to Zara’s facilities for ironing by an assembly line of workers. After this, the items are wrapped and transported on conveyor...
Words: 1581 - Pages: 7
...Reference Article from www.thirdeyesight.in THIRD EYESIGHT © Devangshu Dutta, 2002 retail @ the speed of fashion By Devangshu Dutta The middle-aged mother buys clothes at the Zara chain because they are cheap, while her daughter aged in the mid-20s buys Zara clothing because it is fashionable. Clearly, Zara is riding two of the winning retail trends - being in fashion and low prices - and making a very effective combination out of it. Much talked about, especially since its parent company's IPO in 2001, often admired, sometimes reviled, but hardly ever ignored, Zara has been an interesting case study for many other retailers and fashion brands around the world. We set out to understand what are the winning elements in Zara's business model, and probably only scratched the surface of the key to their success. Here's the quick-n-dirty on Zara's recipe for growth. case STUDY Zara is the flagship brand of the Spanish retail group, Inditex SA, one of the super-heated performers in a soft retail market in recent years. When Inditex offered a 23 per cent stake to the public in 2001, the issue was over-subscribed 26 times raising Euro2.1 billion for the company. What makes Inditex so tasty? Well, for a start, it seemed to show higher profit margins than comparable retailers, and secondly, the trend seemed sustainable. Good bet for most investors. The Awkward Factor in the Profitability Formula Buy low, sell high. Buy on credit...
Words: 3814 - Pages: 16
...ZARA: FAST FASHION When Amancio Ortega, a former Spanish bathrobe maker, opened his first Zara clothing store, his business model was simple: sell high-fashion look-alikes to price-conscious Europeans. After succeeding in this, he decided to tackle the outdated clothing industry in which it took six months from a garment’s design to consumers being able to purchase it in a store. What Ortega envisioned was “fast fashion”—getting designs to customers quickly. And that’s exactly what Zara has done! The company has been described as having more style than Gap, faster growth than Target, and logistical expertise rivaling Wal-Mart. Zara, which is owned by the Spanish fashion retail group Inditex SA, recognizes that success in the fashion world is based on a simple rule—get products to market quickly. Accomplishing this, however, isn’t so simple. It involves a clear and focused understanding of fashion, technology, and their market, and the ability to adapt quickly to trends. Inditex, the world’s largest fashion retailer y sales worldwide, has seven chains: Zara (including Zara Kids and Zara Home), Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius, Bershka, OYsho, and Uterque. The company has over 5, 618 stores in 84 countries, although Zara pulls in over 60 percent of the company’s revenues. Despite its global presence, Zara is not yet a household name in the United States, with just over 50 stores open, including a flagship store in New York City. What is Zara’s secret to...
Words: 853 - Pages: 4
...Zara Case Study Zara is a clothing and accessories retailer owned by Inditex of Spain. It is the largest and most internationalized of Inditex's chains. Zara completed its rollout in the Spanish market by 1990 and then started its expansion around that time. At the end of 2001, it operated 507 stores in countries around the world, including Spain. Zara has three product lines which are for women, men, and children, and two basic collections each year that are phased in through the fall/winter and spring/summer seasons. Nowadays Zara is seen like a successful internationalized fashion company. One of the factors that help on Zara's success is its speed in producing. It takes about four week for new fashion idea to approach the retail stores and two weeks for modification of existing items. Besides, it makes the customers "buy now because you won't see this item later". Zara is trying to follow new trend with a limited number each product, so the scarcity of items urges buyers to get it as soon as they can. Hitting the sentiment of buyers is one of the most effective thing that helps Zara's items gone way so fast. Store locations are also important because they are located in highly visible locations, mostly including the premier shopping streets in a local market; together with significant centralization of store window display, it can easily promote its market image. Because of that, Zara spends less than its competitors such as H&M, The Gap, Benetton on advertising. Having...
Words: 696 - Pages: 3
...Case Study on Zara: IT for Fast Fashion I. Executive Summary After reviewing Zara: IT for Fast Fashion, it is concluded that the problem the company is facing is their need to upgrade from their POS (point-of-sale) terminal system that uses a DOS (Disk Operating System) to a POS terminal system that does not run on DOS. Upgrading would allow the company’s stores to be interconnected and instantly check the stock of a certain SKU in another store. It is recommended that this upgrade be made before the company furthers their global expansion, specifically into Italy in order for the new stores to open with the new POS terminal system. II. Issue Identification The main issue Zara is facing is the operating system they are using. They are currently using POS (point-of-sale) terminals which run on DOS (Disk Operating System) that are no longer supported by Microsoft. If the hardware vendor decides to upgrade their machines in a way that they are no longer DOS compatible, Zara would not be able to open new stores until they switched to an upgraded system. III. Environmental and Root Case Analysis Other issues that are causing problems: * The communication barriers between the stores * Many difficulties with faxing order forms which led to the use of personal digital assistants (PDA). * However the POS terminals and PDAs do not contain information that can be transferrable to another store when they wanted to know about a particular SKU in stock. Employees...
Words: 1304 - Pages: 6
...CASE STUDY ZARA 1. Which theory is internationalization? the best representative of Zara’s (Inditex’s) In the case of Zara, the Uppsala model can be considered as the best representative theory concerning their internationalization strategy. The Uppsala model is an organic growth model, which aims to minimize psychic distance through small incremental steps in the internationalization process. Zara opened its first store in La Coruna in 1975 and focused on the domestic market in the early stages. Gaining experience from the home country before entering a foreign market is characteristic for the Uppsala model. The expansion of Zara was first limited to Spanish cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. Due to the maturity of the Spanish market, Zara was aiming to expand to the international market. Because of the geographic and cultural proximity to Spain they started their foreign operations by opening a store in Portugal. This enabled a gradual learning-by-doing process, concentrating first on countries close to Spain. Subsequently they preceded the internationalization process by entering different European markets. The intention was to keep a low level of psychic and cultural distance in order to internationalize step-by-step. After obtaining more knowledge and experience in foreign markets, Zara started expanding to other regions more rapidly and out of consideration for geographical or cultural proximity. In general, the internationalization strategy of Zara can be best...
Words: 1618 - Pages: 7
...Pre-course Assignment | International Business INTRODUCTION TO THE CASE Zara is a retail chain company which operates in the fashion industry. It's owned by Indixt group in North West Spain. It holds the ownership of some world famous brands such as Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear, Oysho, Uterqüe, Stradivarius and Bershka. The very first Zara shop was open in 1975 and their specialty is frequent innovation of new product lines. Also they decided not to outsource their production to low-cost countries which is a trend in the same industry. At the same time they followed up a special policy of investing on opening a new store instead of investing on advertising which ultimately causes them to spread their branch network and make their products available everywhere. Zara controls most of the steps on their supply chain. Also they get the customer feedbacks and respond to them in an impressive manner. Through this, they are maintaining a loyal and frequently aware customer base. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS 1 Pre-course Assignment | International Business CASE QUESTIONS Which theory is the best representative of Zara's internationalization? When considering about the internationalization theories, there are three main theories to be taken in to consideration. 1. The Uppsala internationalization model 2. The transaction cost analysis model 3. The network model The Uppsala Internationalization model In this model, a firm is willing to intensify their commitments towards...
Words: 2536 - Pages: 11
...ZARA: History and Background Inditex is a global specialty retailer that designs, manufactures, and sells apparel, footwear, and accessories for women, men and children through its chains around the world. Zara is the largest and most internationalized of the six retailers that Inditex owns: (Zara, Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear, Bershka, Stradivarius, and Oysho). By the end of 2001, Zara operated 507 stores around the world, including Spain. Of Inditex’s total employees, over 80% of them are part of the retail sales force and 8.5% are in manufacturing, design, logistics, and distribution. The remaining 11.5% are part of the corporate headquarters of Inditex, which is located in the region of Spain called Galicia. The role of the corporate center at Inditex’s headquarters is that of a “strategic controller” only, and is involved in setting the corporate strategy, approving the business strategies of the individual chains, and controlling their overall performance rather than as an “operator” functionally involved in running the chains. This gives Zara autonomy to operate independently and be responsible for its own strategy, product design, sourcing & manufacturing, distribution, image, personnel and financial results. With this freedom, Zara was able to make major investments in manufacturing, logistics, and IT, including establishment of a just-in-time manufacturing system and a 130,000 square meter warehouse close to its corporate headquarters. Zara manufactured...
Words: 2650 - Pages: 11
...Zara Case Study Analysis Executive Summary This report provides and analysis and evaluation of the current IT operations of Zara, a segment of Inditex, and concludes with a decision whether to upgrade to a more modern operating system or not. When analyzing the company, many problems arose that centered on the company using an obsolete DOS operating system. Key problems found were that managers are spending too much time on ordering information. POS systems are not linked and therefor information cannot be shared between them. As a result, information regarding internal and external inventory cannot be accessed. Further analysis reveals that due to the increase in demand for more proficient, up-to-date operating systems, DOS has been replaced by many companies, leaving Inditex as one of their vendor’s only customers. Moreover, if their vendor is no longer provided with the DOS hardware, Inditex is left without and operating system. Inditex has the option of waiting until this threat becomes a reality, or to purchase the new operating systems now. The report evaluates these problems and concludes that it would be ideal for a new Windows operating system to be purchased immediately and implemented effectively within the next two years. It recommends that inventory systems be changed so that an actual on hand inventory count is known, interaction is allowed between internal POS systems as well as external nearby store inventory systems, and that the new system is widely used...
Words: 2811 - Pages: 12
