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).
Zara is one of the leading retail garments chain in Europe. Their main competitors are Gap and H&M, and together they form a group of speciality chains in the apparel industry. Zara has operated and adopted a different strategy as compared to Gap and H&M and the following points draw the difference between the players.
1. Vertical Integration: Traditionally the global apparel industry is highly labor intensive rather than capital intensive. Hence outsourcing production to developing countries with low labor rates to lower costs is a common trend amongst the big retailers. The same strategy is followed by Gap and H&M. In contrast, Zara has developed a successful diverse method of doing business in the fashion industry by working through the whole value chain. Zara manufactures 60% of its own products and is able to be flexible in the variety, amount, and frequency of the new styles they produce. In fact the whole line of most fashion sensitive products is produced internally (comprising around 50% of the total manufacturing) and in small batches for the most time-sensitive ones.
2. Distribution System: Zara has one centralized distribution centre compared to H&M and Gap, which have distribution centres in all the countries they operate. This reduces the distribution lead-time of their goods and leads to better inventory control. The distribution centre is highly technically advanced leading to almost negligible flaws and high accuracy rates.
3. Advertisement Expenditure: Zara’s advertising expenditure is 0-.3% as compared to its competitors who spend almost 5% of their revenues. Zara’s cuts in