Anil Nembang | L0030BSBS0811

Zara: IT/IS for Fast Fashion

STUDENT NAME: ANIL NEMBANG SUBJECT: MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM LECTURER: DR. UMA MOHAN CARDIFF METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY

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Executive Summary:
This paper presents the analysis of Zara, a Pilot retailer of Spanish retail giant Inditex which has become successful through its simple Business model of speed, flexibility and high fashion. The main issue in this case is to decide by the company whether to upgrade current system risking reliability with the current system or continue using DOS based operating system which is not compatible for future changes or improvements. The current system followed by Zara is effective and easy to maintain which persuaded the company to continue without any changes in the system. Although the sense of urgency for new system is not high, MS DOS is obsolete technology. So, it has been recommended that Zara should upgrade IT infrastructures and introduce modern information systems in modular basis to capitalize strength, shore up weakness, invest in opportunities and identify threats in Asian apparel Industry to capture the market shares. Introducing new POS networking system is beneficial to Zara because 1) It creates more robust and scalable system that is more responsive to Inditexs Supply Chain Network, 2) helps to maintain and improve efficiency of decentralization because of effective flow of information between stores, Distribution Centres and Plant and 3) removes the risks of the system becoming obsolete.

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary: ............................................................................................................................... 2 Introduction to the study: ........................................................................................................................ 4 Background of Zara ................................................................................................................................ 4 Strategic Planning: .................................................................................................................................. 4 Mission Statement:.............................................................................................................................. 4 Zara Business Model: ......................................................................................................................... 6 Comparing Business Model with H&M: ............................................................................................ 6 PEST analysis: .................................................................................................................................... 6 Political Environment: .................................................................................................................... 6 Economic Environment: ................................................................................................................. 7 Socio-cultural Environment ............................................................................................................ 7 Technological Environment: ........................................................................................................... 7 SWOT Analysis .................................................................................................................................. 7 Strength: .......................................................................................................................................... 7 Weakness: ....................................................................................................................................... 8 Opportunities: ................................................................................................................................. 8 Threats: ........................................................................................................................................... 9 Decision making and information requirements: .................................................................................... 9 IS Recommendation:............................................................................................................................. 11 Sales and Marketing Information system: ........................................................................................ 12 Manufacturing Information System: ................................................................................................. 13 Logistic Information System: ........................................................................................................... 14 IS Recommendation for Resource Planning Department ................................................................. 15 IS Recommendation for Department of Supply Chain Management ............................................... 15 Is Recommendation for Customer Relations Department ................................................................ 15 Conclusion: ........................................................................................................................................... 15 Other Recommendations:...................................................................................................................... 15 Reference: ............................................................................................................................................. 17 Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 19 Pictorial representation of Zara business model ............................................................................... 19 Comparing Zaras business model with conventional business model: ............................................ 20 Comparing Zaras Price Markdown Strategy with regular retail: ..................................................... 20 Zaras success factors: ...................................................................................................................... 21 Value chain of Zara ........................................................................................................................... 22

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Introduction to the study:

The main strategy of Zara is the ability to respond very quickly to the demands of target customers. The company has been able to identify the trends and meet the demand with the help of autonomously organized structure and effective value chain system. The present system followed by Zara has been very effective and easy to maintain. The problem with Zara is that the current system that they use, PO-S (Pont of sales terminals), runs on DOS which Microsoft doesnt support anymore and any hardware change in the POS terminal will not be compatible with the current POS software. The other main issues the Zara facing is that the stores dont share inventory information electronically and hence inventory management becomes highly difficult and manual. The decision making process is based on judgement of employee instead of relying on small set of decision makers; the majority of decisions are made by store managers. The basic ordering activity in store happens with the help of PDA devices which do not share the information with POS terminals because of which the access to information in not very effective. However, despite of these limitations Inditex, the parent company of Zara has made extraordinarily well performing value chain that is by far the most responsive in the industry.

Background of Zara
Zara is flagship chain store of Spanish retail giant Inditex Corporation owned by Spanish tycoon Amancio Ortega. Headquarter of the group is in Corua , Spain where the first store of Zara, most renowned and fashion icon is founded in 1975. Zara, well known fashion designing and manufacturing company is declared most effective and market responding enterprise in Fashion Industry (Murphy, 2008).

Strategic Planning:
Mission Statement:
Zaras Vision: Leading apparel industry driven by customer demand and fast fashion. Zaras Mission: To hold big market share among young and fashion conscious city-dwellers in all continents by quickly responding their demand Zaras Goal: Long term goal: Open 120 new stores in prime location of Asia, America, Europe and Africa by 2021 with all business functions of the company interlinked via computer network. Short term goal

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Increase market share and sales in Asia Upgrade Information Technology infrastructure

Zaras Objective: Marketing objective: To increase market share of Zara in Asia by 5% and sales by 10% by 2016. Marketing Strategy: Increase purchase frequency among current customers by 15% by 2016. Increase the number of new customers by 10% by 2016. Open 30 stores (10 stores per year) by 2016 in prime location of Asian cities.

Communication objective: To increase brand awareness.

Communication Strategy: Build strong relationship among existing and potential customers through CRM.

Customer satisfaction objective: To create convenient shopping environment and instant acknowledgement of customer feedback by February 2014. Customer satisfaction Strategy: Make business online by end of January 2014. Introduce Brick and click e-commerce business model Integrate customer forum page in website.

Technological Objective: To collect and analyse information to achieve effective and efficient uses of company assets/resources by 2015. Technological Strategy: Set up integrated ERP, CRM and SCM by 2015. Generic Marketing Strategy of Zara: Zara mainly adopts Differentiation Strategy to meet its mission statement. Zara produces and markets unique clothes base on sense of style and fashion. However, it also blends Cost Leadership Strategy and Market Segmentation Strategy to some extent to its main strategy. Zara produces in small quantity to lower the inventory cost. It employs a group of commercials dedicated to a section of store namely Men, Women, or Children. Core Strategy of Zara: Decentralize the decision making process Integrated supply chain Stores in prime places Short lead time Small quantity production principle to lower the inventory risk and cost

Key Success Factors of Zara:

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Vertical systematization of production Recreation of fashion Utilizing store IT system Small quantity production principle Utilizing geographical conditions Collecting customers data and feedback

Zara Business Model:

Fashion retailer Zara has achieved spectacular growth via a distinctive design-on-demand operating model. Zara Business Model is mainly based on its business concept. The fundamental concept of Zara is to rapidly respond to customer trend in fashion. Zara sells medium quality but fashionable apparel in affordable price. Zara believes that constant flow of fashion world is driven by customer demand not the supply. So, Zara maintains tight control over business functions by keeping design, production, distribution and retail stores in close proximity to each other. In Zara, design is linked to production, production is linked to distribution, and distribution is linked to retail store. Zara has short lead time because of its effective in-house production mechanism. Zara maintains 80% of its production in Europe of which 50% in Spain close to headquarter. Zara has business model of forward integration where company takes direct control of its production and distribution. Moreover, Inditex Corporation is holding company atop Zara.

Comparing Business Model with H&M:

The Swedish clothing firm, H&M outsources no-care operations. H&M doesnt own any factories; instead H&M buys clothes and other items through an abundance of detached suppliers. On the other hand the business model of Zara is vertically integrated. Zara controls every step of the value chain; only clothes with a longer shelf/fashion life time are outsourced.

PEST analysis:
Political Environment: East Asian countries have liberal trade policies and are well integrated to global economy. Hong Kong and Singapore are free ports. South Korea and Taiwan are liberalized substantially in recent years. Malaysia is fairly open but with significant protection. China has open trade policy with European Countries while Japan has defensive (Sally, 2012). There are around 52 countries in Asia. Asia currently has mixed political situation. West Asia and South Asia has fragile political situation. Countries like Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Iraq, Israel, and Syria lie in West Asia and South Asia where the political situation is delicate because of domestic conflict and war. However, Arabic countries like United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain have stable political situation. On the other hand, most of the countries in Southeast Asia and East Asia have sound political situation. Countries like Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia in Southeast Asia and China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan (Republic of China) are best potential countries for the company to expand.

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Economic Environment: The economy of East Asia is one of the most successful regional economies of the world. It has some of the worlds largest economies: China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea. Functional Differentiation, autonomy of economic system and abundant natural resources are the main economic success factors of East Asia. The economy of West Asia is diverse. Some of the countries has high economic growth rate. Turkey has the highest economic growth rate followed by Saudi Arabia. Petroleum Industry is the major in the regional economy. South Asia has relatively poor economy in compare to other regions. Many countries are underdeveloped and people are living under poverty. Sri Lanka has the highest economic growth rate while Afghanistan has the lowest. India has the largest economy in South Asia and achieved 9% GDP growth in recent year. Socio-cultural Environment: Asian countries have mixed religions. East Asia has majority of Buddhism and Taoism while West Asia has Muslim and South Asia has Hinduism, Muslim, Christianity and Buddhism. Asia has mixed lifestyle trends. Due to technological advancement, lifestyle of Asian countries is highly influenced by European/western cultures. There is cultural exchange among the countries over the world. Asian countries like China, India, and South Korea are coming to be regarded as cultural hotspot and influencers of the futures. There is fashion consciousness and brand awareness in Asian consumers. The trend of consumer spending in lifestyle and fashion is increasing day by day. Technological Environment: East Asia is highly advance in term of technology. East Asian countries like Japan, China, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong are some of the leading countries in technology in the world. They have highly advance and sophisticated IT infrastructure. Technology is one of the key factors for vibrant economy in East Asia. East Asian countries are using Technology for efficient and effective mobilization of resources in industry. South Asia and Central Asia have developing countries. So, technology is still primitive in these regions. However, India, the South Asian country has already moved forward in technological advancement. Arabic countries in West Asia are highly advance in terms of technology. Technology is playing key role in the robustness of their economy.

SWOT Analysis
Strength: High Brand Value: Zara is also known as popular clothing brand. Vertical integration: Zara apparel chain works differently than the traditional retailer. Traditional apparel retailers generally outsource all of their productions while Zara manages all design, warehousing, distribution and logistics functions itself. Advantage of vertical integration:

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Zaras business model is vertically integrated and highly capital intensive because of which the company has following advantages: Cost is reduced because no channel is outsourced. Avoid conflicts emerging form different channels. Swift, efficient, and effective designation, production and distribution.

Strong distribution channel: Zaras distribution channel is expensive but is very strong. Its distribution network mainly works by plane and trucks rather than trains and ship to deliver twice a week. By this system Zara has achieved 98.9% accuracy in distribution process (Dishti, 2010). Spot emerging trend and react quickly: Zara has pull strategy rather than forecasting. Designers of Zara walk around the world to pick the latest trend. Store managers frequently report the central office about the inventory and sales which helps to identify the tendency of customers. Another strong aspect of Zara is that the items are produced in the decision of manager and as per the customers choice rather than mere designers creativity. Stores around the world: Zara has 1,721 stores over 70 countries to capture the apparel market. Inexpensive but fashionable: The apparel in Zara is fashionable and affordable which is helping Zara to undercut its rivals. Customers comments and feedbacks: Zara remains very close to customers. Each Zara store wants and welcomes customer comments and feedbacks which help stakeholders to make future merchandising policy and strategy. One of the managers of Tesco says Our customer is based on listening to customers. Weakness: Advertising: Advertising is the persuasive communication device through which customers become aware of the product and services of a company. Through awareness and knowledge thus acquired by the buyers, they show their likings and interest towards products and finally purchases. But, Zara has zero advertising policy. Online presence at Zara is weak: Online is becoming very essential tool to display and sell the products. The rival companies like H&M and Gap are much more benefited by their online business activities. Centralized distribution system: Centralized distribution system involves suppliers delivering products in a centralized warehouse rather than to retail store. Sometimes centralized distribution system may cause delay in meeting the demands in the stores. Opportunities: Online Market: The internet marketing provides tremendous opportunities to a business to improve marketing effort and achieve competitive advantage. Online marketing can benefit business mainly on three ways: Effective communications Product development Business efficiency

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Expansion plan: Zara has been investing billions of euros to open new stores around the world and it could be the robust plan for revenue growth in the future. The rate of opening new store of Zara is about 640 stores per annum. Outsourcing: Zara need to think about the strategies to take benefits from other corner of world where the currency is weak and labour cost is low. Many companies are benefited from outsourcing strategy. Growing apparel market in Asia: Growth rate of apparel market in Asia is being high. Growing population in Asia, higher disposable income and consumer consciousness in international brands are the major factors which motivates Zara to enter into Asian apparel market. Brand Image: Zara is the popular brand name among the customers around the world. Zara is able to win the heart of customers because of its customer-centric policy. Threats: Euro centric production: Inditex Corporation focuses of designing and manufacturing most of its products in European land where labour cost is in increasing trend. Increase in operating cost cut down the profit. Threat of new entrants: Although the rate of new entrants in apparel industry is low as big players are dominating the market, there are still the threats of few entrants. The new entrants increases competition and in return the bargaining power of customer increases which also cuts down the profit of the company. Economic recession: Economic recession makes the pocket size of consumers small which decrease the spending power of consumer. Global and Local competitors: Many apparel industries are evolving around the world with unbeatable strategies. Brand names like H&M, GAP are the major competitors of Zara. No advertising campaign: Zara doesnt undertake advertising campaign because of which there is probability that the rival company can slash down the consumer number due to their strong advertising strategy. Fluctuation in exchange rate: Zara has opened its stores in all continents Europe, America, Asia, and Africa. Because of its national and international network, fluctuation in exchange rate of currency contributes huge in loss and gain of Company. Market entry barriers: Zara has global market penetration strategy. Each country has own law of land. In some country international investments are welcomed while in some countries it has been

Decision making and information requirements:

Decision making is the process of recognizing opportunities and problems and finding the solution to it. Decision making structure of Zara is flat. Decision making is decentralized which allow Zara to respond quickly to the changing market change and meet the customers needs. Low level decisions are also integrated to make higher level of decisions in Zara.

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Level of Decision Strategic Level Type of Decision Prime Location Information Required Density of potential customers and sociocultural and economic details of the location.

Investment on opening New Political, Economic, Technological, SocioStores cultural, Environmental and Legal background and status of location of interest. No advertising strategy marketing Analysis of advantages and disadvantages in opening new store over advertising. Quality and reliability issue as well as legal system of country. Information gathered by team of 200 experts in design and development field. Consumer behaviour and psychology Research about consumer behaviour How unique the company operation is.

Franchises and alliances

Design driven decisions

Look and feel of stores Life-span of product In-house building of software. Tactical Level Online presence company of

the Pros and cons of online shopping and online shopping trend and behaviour. In addition, competitive advantage achieved by rival apparel industries like GAP and H&M. Geography and geographical distance among manufacture, Distribution Centre, and sales stores. Employee and customer feedback and competitive advantage gained by competitors like GAP and H&M.

Creation of logistic network

Requirement of IT

Future production of each Ratio between demand and supply of each Stock Level Unit (SKU) SKU. Price determination Production cost, distribution cost and market condition.

Outsourcing for synthetics and Cost, turnaround time and geographical fabrics distance. Inventory Planning optimizations and Statistics of desired service level, demand, supply and supply lead time.

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Centrally located distribution Geographical location and distances among centres design and manufacturing and retail stores. Price markdown Inventory information, store sales, cost, and target margin.

Effective Transportation Pros and cons of all transportation means strategies to be adopted. like roadway, railway, airway, and waterway. Moreover, geographical location and distance between manufacture, Distribution centres, and store. Knowledge Level Which store would get the Which store is more successful to sell the available stock in case demand particular garment? exceeds supply? What clothes would designed and produced Operational Level be Inventory information, store sales records, information regarding climatic factors.

Where to send and assess the Socio-cultural background, geography, demand of completely new climate, and fashion trend of a place where product. the store resides. Also the sales history of a particular store is informative Placer order of a particular Inventory details and sales trend of the garment garment. Order replenishment quantity Sales record, sales trend, stock in store of a particular product. Store demand What residents are wearing and what garments are selling? Sales record

What to stock? Store to store transfer

What garments of sales

Change merchandise over four Understanding about consumer psychology week and behaviour.

IS Recommendation:
Zara has flaws in existing information systems in terms of its expensiveness, effectiveness and efficiency. Thus, following information systems are recommended to Zara to further improve in its performances.

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Sales and Marketing Information system:

Level System Type Decision of Type of IS ESS Description of Competitive IS Advantage of IS Identifies and Stakeholder analyse satisfactions, stakeholders capacity and prioritize utilization. and engage them accordingly. Relation to Goals and Objectives Easier to recognize person and organization who can impact new stores in Asia. Systematically Effective and Helps to collects past efficient design and present strategy. effective economic, strategy to political, overcome social and internal and technological external data. forces in Asia. Tracking and Expands Generates managing market potential prospective share, better clientele in customers, growth in Asian their business. apparel conversions market. into sales and establish long term relationship. Predicts future Business Expands sales based on expansion business in past Asian performance. apparel industry. Analyse Helps in Attracts production and scientific and customer determines accurate because of effective cost. pricing. reasonable price. Analyse the Customer Helps to customer satisfaction. increase shopping sales and behaviour and margin. habits. Enter process Effective and Superior and track efficient control over orders. monitoring operations. of sales.

Strategic Level

Stakeholder analysis

Stakeholder management

Situational analysis

Choice of ESS strategies, assessment of organizations SWOT.

Lead management

Lead ESS planning, qualification, routing, nurturing and automation

Sales trend

Prepare long ESS term forecasts

Tactical level

Pricing analysis

Determines price

MIS

Knowledge level

Market analysis.

Customer KWS demand and habits.

Operational level

Order processing

Daily sales

TPS

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Manufacturing Information System:
Level System Types of Type of Description of Competitive Relations Decision IS IS Advantage to Goals and objectives Manufacturing Human ESS Helps to make Faster Helps to and planning resources decisions on decision maintain control (MPC) capabilities, appropriate making. shorter lead technology capacity to time. and meet the geographical market location to demands of meet the the future. future needs. Production Number and MIS Helps to Cost Cheaper planning schedule of decide leadership, price which products number and less leads to schedule of throughput customer products. time, satisfaction flexibility and big and market reliability share. CAD New designs KWS Assists Accuracy, There is (Computer creation, flexibility highly Aided Design) modification, and likelihood analysis, and reliability of meeting optimization designs of design. needed to customers. CAM Tools TPS Control Accurate Makes (Computer procurement, machine tools allocation production Aided materials and related of effective Manufacturing) ordering, machinery in resources. and production the Effective maintains and quality manufacturing production short lead control, of work and better time. packaging pieces. cost control and shipping.

Strategic Level

Tactical Level

Knowledge Level

Operation Level

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Logistic Information System:
Level System Type Decision of Type of IS Description of Competitive IS Advantage Forecasting, order quantity engineering, replenishment planning, and service level optimization. Maintains the lowest inventory level possible to make inventory system cost effective. Cost control, customer satisfaction. Relation to Goals and objectives Helps in cost control, makes products cheaper and helps to increase sales. Sales increases because of cheaper price led by tight freight cost control Effective and efficient delivery

Strategic Level

Inventory Inventory ESS management planning and and control management. system.

Tactical Level

Transportation system

Shipment MIS management, fleet and container management, carrier and freight management. Receiving, TPS put away, storage, order picking, shipping

Operational Level

Warehousing System

Links all pickup and delivery to points with response to time requirements and customer service policy. Minimize cost Increase and fulfilment efficiency time. of entire supply chain.

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IS Recommendation for Resource Planning Department
System Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Type of Decision Human resources, Tangible and intangible company assets. Description of IS Collects and analyses information to achieve effective and efficient use of company resources and assets. Competitive Advantage Customer satisfaction, maximization of profit, big market share. Relation to Goals and objectives Helps to organize resources either human or other resources by executives of the company.

IS Recommendation for Department of Supply Chain Management

System Supply Chain Management Type of Decision Procurement, inbound and outbound logistics. Description of IS Interconnects all the nodes involved in supply chain Competitive Advantage Make decision based on unique business constraints. Relation to Goals and objectives Reduce cost, increases margins. There will be strong bond among various nodes of supply chains.

Is Recommendation for Customer Relations Department

System Customer Relations Management Type of Decision Current and future customers. Description of IS It organizes, automates and synchronizes sales, marketing, customer service and technical support. Competitive Advantage Customer satisfaction, brand awareness. Relation to Goals and objectives Increase in sales, higher market shares.

Conclusion:
Although the existing system is working fine, Zara has been recommended to upgrade its POS system in order to cope with future changes. Zara has been recommended to introduce modern information systems to maintain the flaws prevailing in current Supply Chain, Customer Relations and Resources Planning. It has also been suggested to implement other Information Systems to make its performance more effective and efficient.

Other Recommendations:
In fashion, what industry requires is information or data about whats going to happen, not what already happened. So, Zara should allow fashion merchants and buyers to leverage crowdsourcing to get forward-looking, fast-turnaround, predictive analytics that can improve the style picking

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capabilities. The pilot research conducted by one collective intelligence company has identified that the crowdsourcing can improve product selection by more than seven times (Ziv, 2010). Moreover, Zara can opt for cloud computing as a platform for its financial software to help business rapidly expand to new markets in new countries. Zara has been recommended to go through Brick and Click business model of e-commerce. So, the main challenges that Zara faces are high percentage of returns. Therefore Zara is recommended to introduce Virtual Fitting Room where robotic mannequin takes body measurements and mimics shape so that customers can see exactly how clothing would fit (Ziv, 2010).

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Reference:
1. Murphy R. (2008/08/01) Expansion Boosts Inditex Net [Online] Verified on: http://www.wwd.com/beauty-industry-news/financial/expansion-boosts-inditex-net-459628?full=true [Accessed: 28/01/2013] 2. Sally R. (2012) Trade Policy in East Asia: Regionalism Triumphant [Online] Verified on: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/globalDimensions/tradepolicy/papers/eastasia.htm [Accessed: 17/02/2013] 3. Drysdale P. (28/03/2012) Asias economic and political interdependence [Online] Verified on: 4. http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2012/05/28/asias-economic-and-political-interdependence/ [Accessed: 16/02/2013] 4. World Economic Forum (2012) Global Agenda Council on South-East Asia 2012 [Online] Verified on: http://www.weforum.org/content/global-agenda-council-south-east-asia-2012 [Accessed: 16/02/2013] 5. Euromonitor International (11/05/2007) East is East and West is West-regional consumer attitude comparisons- Introduction [Online] Verified on: http://blog.euromonitor.com/2007/05/east-is-eastand-west-is-west-regional-consumer-attitude-comparisons-introduction.html [Accessed: 17/02/2013] 6. International Trade Centre (2012) West and South Asia: Situational Analysis [Online] Verified on: http://www.intracen.org/uploadedFiles/intracen.org/Content/About_ITC/Aid_for_Trade/A4T-WestSouth-Asia-ENG.pdf [Accessed: 17/02/2013] 7. Ziv Y. (21/10/2010) Buying Process: Crowdsourcing Styles: Better Projections [Online] Available at: http://mashable.com/2010/10/21/fashion-digital-tools/ [Accessed: 14/03/2013] 8. Murphy R. (2008/08/01) Expansion Boosts Inditex Net [Online] Verified on: http://www.wwd.com/beauty-industry-news/financial/expansion-boosts-inditex-net-459628?full=true [Accessed: 28/01/2013] 9. Nadeem D. (09/12/2010) Zaras supply chain management practice [Online] Verified on: http://itm-rmm1012.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/zaras-supply-chain-management-practice.html [Accessed: 30/01/2013] 10. Barrie L. (02/02/2012) Just style management briefing: Opportunities for the apparel industry in 2012 [Online] Verified on: http://www.just-style.com/management-briefing/opportunities-for-theapparel-industry-in-2012_id113371.aspx [Accessed: 31/01/2013] 11. Osterwalder A. (23/06/2005) Zaras business model [Online] Verified on: http://www.businessmodelalchemist.com/2005/06/zaras-business-model.html [Accessed 02/02/2013] 12. Evans B. (2010) Case Study of Zara [Online] Verified on: http://newezinearticles.com/Art/119075/149/Case-study-of-ZARA.html [Accessed: 07/02/2013]

13. (2011, 05). Zara It for Fast Fashion Case Notes. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 05, 2011, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Zara-It-For-Fast-Fashion-Case-710292.html

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14. The Guardian Will rising cost spark a new social trend in the fashion industry [Online] Verified on: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/blog/rising-costs-social-trend-fashion [Accessed: 09/02/2013] 15. Pearson A. (09/12/2012) The Strategists Choice [Online] Verified on: http://www.uniquebusinessstrategies.co.uk/pdfs/case%20studies/zarathespeedingbullet.pdf [Accessed: 09/02/2013] 16. Sehgal V. (16/05/2008) Replenishment Policies and Inventory Planning [Online] Verified on: http://www.supplychainmusings.com/2008/05/replenishment-policies-and-inventory.html [Accessed: 09/02/2013] 17. Mathur R. (2009) Management Information System in Clothing Industry [Online] Verified on: http://www.ssmrae.com/admin/images/1d9ad2a745d67cf5074ef33417692a67.pdf [Accessed: 11/02/2013]

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Appendix
Pictorial representation of Zara business model

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Comparing Zaras business model with conventional business model:

Comparing Zaras Price Markdown Strategy with regular retail:

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Zaras success factors:

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Value chain of Zara

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