Zara – the Quick Change Artist

This blog post is in response to Ria Singh’s “Secret to Success….Shhhhhhh”.

I agree with Ria that out of all the examples that I have learned in COMM 101, the case of Zara’s supply chain management caught my attention the most. After reading articles on Zara’s supply chain, many of my questions, as a consumer, was solved.

Through the years of experience in shopping, I discover that out of all the clothing retail stores, Zara is the one that has the least amount of discount. In many fast fashion stores, such as Forever 21 and H&M, there are always shelves and racks of clothing with discount tags. However, this is not a common scene in Zara. My question was answered when I learned that one tactic Zara supply chain follows is small batch production. There is a fast turnover rate. By the time a season ends, only limited amount of leftover clothing will require a clearance sale. Many products are already consumed at its original price.

Zara also sells similar fashionable clothing as other retail stores, but only they come much earlier. The success in faster launching time is reached base on Zara’s quick response to demand. Understanding that its target group concerns more on the fashionable sense than the quality of the clothing, Zara realizes designs base on the type of material in stock. This eliminates the time for purchasing new raw material, and helps to make sure Zara is the first retail store that can provide the newest trendy clothing in affordable price.

People might have different opinion to the practices of Zara, the “quick change artist”. Fashion designers of renowned brands will criticize Zara’s supply chain. They would criticize Zara not only plagiarize their fruit of endeavor, but also fail to deliver the soul of the pieces with unsatisfying quality of fabric. As entrepreneurs, they will be amazed by the brilliant idea. The possibility of net lost is minimized and the number of return customer increases since Zara always maintain at the tip of fashion.