As most of us are familiar with the fast fashion retailer store, Zara has shown their dominance in the fashion industry. With operations in over 96 countries, they have had immense success internationally. To accomplish this, they have mastered and even pioneered the ability to create products that cater to trends just weeks in the making, versus competing brands taking months to bring to the market.
Zara began aggressively expanding to global markets including Portugal, New York, Paris, Mexico, Greece, Belgium, and Sweden to name a few. Fast forward to today, there is barely a developed country that doesn’t have one of their stores. Their brand strategy revolves around their core values of, “beauty, clarity, functionality, and sustainability” (Roll, 2021). They were known to have found a gap in the market which was the challenge of keeping up with fashion trends while simultaneously keeping high quality all while being affordable. They can do just that with agility and a keen eye for the latest styles. This ties in with the beliefs of founder, Amancio Ortega, who passionately believes in clothing to be a perishable commodity. “According to him, people should love to wear clothes for a short while and then they should throw them away…rather than store them in cupboards” (Roll, 2021).
Their business model has evolved from keeping up with fashion trends to paying close attention to consumer preferences, which is still one of their core competencies of being customer-focused. So much so, that they trained their store employees to actively listen to customer’s specific comments and ideas of what they would want to see, which became known as customer co-creation. This was unveiled during a recurring incident of shoppers entering the store only to find themselves disappointed with not finding what they were looking for, in this particular case, a pink scarf. Zara moved quickly with this need and within seven days, rolled out 500,000 pink scarves carried in 2,000 of their stores globally. Shockingly, in just 3 days they were sold out. This goes to show how customer insights coupled with their highly efficient supply chain, results in their success.
Another important factor that Zara hones in on, is creating a sense of urgency and relevancy to keep up with the ever-evolving fashion industry trends. They strategically produce more variety in clothes rather than quantity of each, even for popular items. This effort aids them in reaching a greater audience and gives them, “a higher chance of getting it right with the customer” *Roll, 2021). Their policy allows its designs to be in the store for 3-4 weeks at a time, which creates a sense of urgency for the customer pushing them to visit stores to get their hands on a particular piece before it’s gone.
Looking closer at their product offerings globally, you see that it directly reflect those customers in those regions. In my experience, visiting a Zara store in Germany was filled with items for a colder climate. In Japan, for example, they offer smaller petite sizes, and in Arab countries, they cater to curating special and more conservative pieces for the women’s line. This is a major facet of their brand strategy that has allowed them to reach new heights in market share and varying demographics.
References:
https://borntobeglobal.com/2023/03/10/20-companies-that-have-successfully-expanded-internationally/