Preview

Analysis: Zara's Supply Chain

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
833 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Analysis: Zara's Supply Chain
2.1 Efficiency
Zara’s supply chain is efficient mainly in terms of time and inventory management as discussed below.
Zara allows store managers to order twice per week. The shipments are then prepared and delivered in least possible time. The products are displayed in stores on the same day they arrive. This allows Zara to reduce the lead time whenever required. (Benjabutr, n.d.)
Moreover, Zara is able to get a new product from just a sketch to a store in 4 to 6 weeks. This is considered to be unexpectedly fast and this needs a whole level of ability to quickly respond to new fashion trends. This alertness and supply chain process is central in supporting Zara’s core strategy (Gorrepati, 2016).
In addition, Zara manages to control its inventory
…show more content…
They do 50 – 60 percent of their manufacturing in advance versus 80 – 90 percent by competitors. So Zara does not need to place big bets on yearly fashion trends (SCM Globe, 2016).
2.2 Effectiveness
Zara has adopted a strategy of scare production, which encourage consumer to shop more frequency for new design. This strategy allows Zara to attract more consumers, build customer satisfaction and increasing level of their loyalty. Nonetheless, Zara is able to sell most of it products at full prices and at low markdown prices which result in less inventories. Therefore, Zara could gain high profits margins.
Frequent replenishment allows Zara to continue supply new design as consumer desire. This replenishment is one of Zara inventory management strategy where all stores are well managed. This means each store keep update the stocks and replace with high demand for goods base on consumer desire in geographically. With this effective strategy, brought greater customer satisfaction and gains more market share globally.
2.3 Risks in Zara Supply Chain
…show more content…
It has been able to adapt to the fast fashion trends (Mozzi..., 2015). This is why Zara ends up producing about 450 million products annually.
Moreover, Zara’s competitors do wish to adapt an efficient and effective supply chain similar to Zara but they find it difficult to adopt. According to Economist (2012), one of the executives at Gap has answered by saying “I would love to organize my business like Inditex but for this we must rebuild our company and start from scratch”. However, a consultancy, Isabel of Planet Retails reports to have said that retailers such as Gap and George are looking further to move their production hub from Asia to somewhere near the home (Economist, 2012).
The supply chain management strategy is a competitive advantage of Zara over its competitors. This is due to one of the biggest advantages of Zara's supply chain strategy is being able to react quickly to all fashion trends and supply customers latest fashion outfits as soon as in few weeks'

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    INFO0331

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages

    There are several ingenious steps taken by Zara that proves both profitable and unprecedented. Zara has used technology to revolutionize their business, from buying the unprocessed cloth to determining which color die to use and what to make with that cloth. The technology process continues on the manufacturing lines and all the way to the final sale. But it does not stop there, it goes beyond the point of sale to question the reasons why a purchase was not made after a client expressed an interest in an item. The point of sale system provides real time data which is given immediate attention. PDAs are actively gathering information which is constantly been taken into consideration. The design strategy is another intuitive step. They do not follow custom catwalk fashion shows, instead they design based on customer demand. Manufacturing and logistics is a key contributor to their highly acclaimed success. The ability to have a product ready and on the shelves in ten days vice the competitor’s time of approximately three to nine month is where the strength of flipping their dollar lies and is accomplished mainly through vertical integration and technology orchestrated coordination of supplies. Deliver to replenish and deliver new stock is an expedited process, in some cases deliver is made overnight. Items placed on the shelves are readily picked up and nothing is ever marked down in a sale. Zara identify and manufacture the clothes customers want, get those products to market quickly, and eliminate costs related to advertising, inventory missteps, and markdowns…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Zara Case Write-Up

    • 1277 Words
    • 6 Pages

    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 the nature of its DCs and complication of online selling. Also, Zara has clear positioning that its clothes are always in style and not for durable use. Third, Zara has lots of stores and large scales, which has promising financial achievements as well as potential growth point. In general, Zara has a business model of preferences for speed and decentralized decision making.…

    • 1277 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    zara case study

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages

    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.…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Zara's Business Model

    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Zara’s business model closely linked customer demand to manufacturing and distribution. Inventory depended largely on the location of the store and what particular customers were buying. They understood that their consumer had a penchant for trend driven pieces, and that marketing and advertising efforts lengthened the lead-time. Thus their marketing budget was usually .3% of revenue, and Zara was able to get high fashion looks in stores while they were still hot. Zara didn’t need to convince their consumers to buy with advertising and marketing efforts, rather they changed 75% of their inventory every three to four weeks, so consumers knew to constantly frequent the store for up to date items.…

    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Zara Case Memo

    • 1034 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Let us first consider Zara 's main competitive advantage before analyzing how current and potential future strategies will affect this competitive advantage. Zara currently employs a "design-on-demand" retail model allowing the company to bring the latest fashion trends from conception through production and into the stores in less then 15 days. This advantage is harnessed through Zara 's high degree of vertical integration. Zara is involved with almost every aspect of the retail clothing value chain, from fabric cutting and dying through distribution and sales. Integral to Zara 's competitive advantage is its strong and distinctive culture, both at the production facilities and in the stores. This unique boutique-style culture entails a minimalist store design centering attention on the clothes, as well as very high throughput rates resulting in customers returning to Zara stores an average of 17 times annually.…

    • 1034 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Zara Ressources

    • 282 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Concerning its production capacity, Zara, based most of its production on what the client is demanding at any time, virtually on demand manufacturing of a shop (pull strategy).…

    • 282 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Zara has developed a business model based on short deadlines, decrease quantities and a great choice of style and clothes.…

    • 1198 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Zara's pricing is lower than its competitors, but profit margins are higher due to direct efficiencies gained from a shortened, vertically integrated, supply chain. At Zara, a high inventory turnover rate results in minimal obsolescence costs, clearance sales or mark downs. Zara estimated 15%-20% of total sales as markdowns/close-outs vs. 30% to 40% for its competitors. This helps to preserve a strong profit margin and bolster market image as a "must buy now" destination.…

    • 961 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Zara Case Analysis

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages

    First of all, Zara has a special planning and design cycle. Zara hires 200 designers and make 11,000 styles of apparels every year, which is about 5 times as many as comparable retailers produce each year. Zara’s production is based on small batches, and this reduces the throughput time. Zara’s timeline began one year in advance of the start of the corresponding year, which means designers start working on the initial ideas for 2013 Spring/Summer collection since 2012. After finishing the initial design collection, the company produced only 50-60% of in-season apparels in advance, with the rest being manufactured on a continuous basis after they are available to the public. Competitors like H&M and Gap, on the other hand, has 80% of its apparels produced in advance, which lead to great amount of inventory in warehouse and high probability of leftovers. This will hurt the companies’ bottom line as the leftovers are usually heavily marked down at the end of the season. Because of its continuous manufacturing method, Zara does not have high amount of inventory and has significantly less leftovers that need to be discounted and would result in loss. Zara can focus on manufacturing only popular collections and thus maximize its profit.…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    By focusing on shorter response times, the company ensures that its stores are able to carry clothes that the consumers want at that time. Zara can move from identifying a trend to having clothes in its stores within…

    • 1112 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Zara Case Study

    • 2051 Words
    • 9 Pages

    With its own production and distribution channels, Zara specializes in quick fashion innovations based on customer changing needs and is known to develop a new product or design and have it on store shelves in less than a month. Competition will generally do this same task in about 6 to 9 months. This competitive advantage has helped Zara to become a fashion leader and always stay a step ahead of competition. This also allows Zara to copy competitor new designs and come out with a slightly deviated version in just a couple weeks. This has competitors distraught as they spend enormous amounts of money on research and design just to have it instantly copied without costing Zara anything in research costs. This business model has allowed Zara to recently produce 11,000 distinct items in a recent year and several hundred SKUs given variation in color, fabric and sizes. This is compared with 2,000-4,000 items for key competitors. They were able to achieve this by shipping products directly from their central distribution center to well-located, attractive stores twice a week, eliminating the need for warehouses and keeping inventories low as possible.…

    • 2051 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Case Study

    • 1476 Words
    • 6 Pages

    By reducing the manufactured quantity of each style, Zara creates artificial scarcity and lowers the risk of having stock…

    • 1476 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Success Factor for Zara

    • 1117 Words
    • 5 Pages

    “The ability to respond to customer requirements on a timely basis has always been a fundamental element of the marketing concept.” Martin Christopher et.al. Hence, it is important being proactive in a market such as the fast-fashion industry which Zara is operating in, time is always a crucial factor. The fast-fashion market, amongst other things, is characterized by short lifecycles, high volatility, low predictability, and high-impulse purchases. Therefore, it is very important for Zara to constantly have their products available for a potential customer in order to sell and earn more profit. Since the fast-fashion market is also constantly shifting and trends can be replaced over a night, there is a low predictability. This makes it a lot more difficult to compose accurate forecasts. In order to stay competitive in the market, it is important to take be aware of these types of factors mentioned above, and make sure you are not left behind.…

    • 1117 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Case Study Zara Analysis Mis

    • 3171 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Zara has often been called as a highly innovative, prosperous concept, mainly due to the fact that the firm just needs about 2 weeks to design a product, manufacture it and get it into their stores (average in the industry is 6 months).…

    • 3171 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Zara Brand

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Zara is a vertically integrated retailer. This means that Zara controls most of the steps of the supply chain, designing, manufacturing, and distributing of its products. Unlike competitors, Zara is able to produce 11,000 distinct items per year compared to the 3,000 items of its competitors. This shortening of the product life cycle means two things: Low prices…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics