Zara and Its International Expansion
Company Overview Zara is one of the largest and the most internationalized retailers that Inditex Group owns. Inditex Group is based in Spain, which is a global specialty retailer that designs, manufactures, and sells apparel, footwear, and accessories for women, men and children around the world.
Zara’s history
The founder of Zara, Amancio Ortega, opened the first Zara store in 1975 in a central street in La Caruña, Spain. It was first featured as low-priced look-alike products of popular, higher-end clothing fashions. The first store proved to be a success, hence Inditex Group started to open more Zara stores in Spain. In order to reduce the lead time and also react to new trends in a faster way, Ortega decided to change the design, manufacturing and distribution process during the 1980’s. This is what Ortega called “instant fashion”. The company made their improvements by the use of information technologies and using a group of designers instead of individuals. The core concept of Zara is they sell “medium quality fashion clothing at affordable prices”, and the vertical integration and quick-response are also keys to Zara’s business model.
Zara started to expand internationally in late 1980’s. The first Zara store outside Spain was opened in Portugal in 1988. Then they entered New York in 1989 and in Paris in 1990. The expansion of Zara stores keeps growing, and until now, it presents in seventy three countries, with 1,341 stores in prime locations of major cities.
Business environment The apparel market is a consumer-driven industry, and globalization and new technologies have allowed consumers to have more access to fashion. Due to these reasons, consumer tastes are changing rapidly, competition is fierce, and companies are evolving to meet these demand.
There are two types of considerations for Zara to successfully enter into the international market- internal factors and external factors, as will be explained in detail later in this paper in the
Zara’s history
The founder of Zara, Amancio Ortega, opened the first Zara store in 1975 in a central street in La Caruña, Spain. It was first featured as low-priced look-alike products of popular, higher-end clothing fashions. The first store proved to be a success, hence Inditex Group started to open more Zara stores in Spain. In order to reduce the lead time and also react to new trends in a faster way, Ortega decided to change the design, manufacturing and distribution process during the 1980’s. This is what Ortega called “instant fashion”. The company made their improvements by the use of information technologies and using a group of designers instead of individuals. The core concept of Zara is they sell “medium quality fashion clothing at affordable prices”, and the vertical integration and quick-response are also keys to Zara’s business model.
Zara started to expand internationally in late 1980’s. The first Zara store outside Spain was opened in Portugal in 1988. Then they entered New York in 1989 and in Paris in 1990. The expansion of Zara stores keeps growing, and until now, it presents in seventy three countries, with 1,341 stores in prime locations of major cities.
Business environment The apparel market is a consumer-driven industry, and globalization and new technologies have allowed consumers to have more access to fashion. Due to these reasons, consumer tastes are changing rapidly, competition is fierce, and companies are evolving to meet these demand.
There are two types of considerations for Zara to successfully enter into the international market- internal factors and external factors, as will be explained in detail later in this paper in the