Mother of Fast-Fashion Retailers
Nov 20th, 2010 by Annie L
In class 16, we have learned the importance of getting the product to the right place at the right time in the right amounts – ensuring efficient supply chain.
In the fashion industry, fast-fashion retailers are those who acknowledge that designs transports from catwalk to their stores in the fastest time to capture current trends in the market. In this fashion retail revolution, the company whom has become almost synonymous with this term is Zara.
Zara is a vertically integrated retailer whom controls most of the steps on the supply chain, from designing to production to distribution. Compared with a six-month industry average of developing a new product and getting it to the stores, Zara accomplishes this in a remarkable pace of three weeks. Their marketing strategies create the desire for consumption of new designs as close as possible to the point of creation – promoting it as something fast, low price, and disposable.
Successful supply chain management was evident as they have:
- Maximized added value
- Reduced total cost across entire trading process
- Focused on speed and certainty of response to the market
It is crucial for fast-fashion retailers, like Forever 21, to accomplish these in order to compete effectively at both the local and global level.