ZARA Seven Behind The "Black List": Expansion Too Fast Management "Shrink"

As a global " Fast fashion ZARA, the international giant of wind vane, has been repeatedly trapped in China. Quality testing Door, 7 times, "list". However, for all the problems, ZARA has always chosen to deal with silence, and has not yet done so. Problem product Give any advice.

As of press release, ZARA Chinese companies have been refusing to respond to the meeting or leave. And face each time quality ZARA has chosen silence and has never given any advice on products with quality problems.

Is expansion too fast?

According to the test report released by Beijing Consumers Association, a total of 57 samples of ZARA, G2000, Guan Qi, G-STAR and other brands were tested. Of the 20 samples, none of the test items met the requirements of the national standard. The main problems existed in fiber content, color fastness, formaldehyde and pH value. Among them, the fiber content of the 6 samples, including a ZARA brand sample, does not match the measured value, accounting for 10.5% of the total sample.

Take the ZARA casual pants that are not eligible for inspection, for example, the fabric label mentioned above is "cotton content is 75%, wool 20%, polyester 5%", and the actual test results contain 68.2% cotton, 68.2% less than the label, wool is only 10.6%, less than half the mark. Polyester fiber, that is, polyester content of 15.7%, more than two times the label.

This is not a case. In recent years, ZARA has become a frequent visitor in the list of substandard products of industrial and commercial departments and quality inspection departments. According to incomplete statistics, ZARA has been caught in "quality gate" for at least 7 times since August 2009.

The expansion is too fast for the industry to think that ZARA is the main reason for repeated problems. "The price plus development is too fast, and the inevitable result is that the quality will be reduced, and each store will be so large that the market cost is too high, so the company will reduce costs, including raw material costs and labor costs." Insiders said.

According to the raw materials of ZARA casual pants, cotton prices are currently around 30 thousand yuan / ton, and the price of wool is about 92 thousand yuan / ton, while the price of acrylic raw material is about 26 thousand yuan / ton. The largest increase in polyester is cheaper, with only 13 thousand and 900 yuan / ton.

"ZARA's sales in China far exceed the expectations of headquarters, and has increased its investment in the Chinese market since 2009." An industry insider said that in the first half of 2009, ZARA opened only 4 stores in Shanghai, and the new store was close to the total number of stores opened in February 2006 in Shanghai in the first 3 years. Since 2006, ZARA has opened 75 stores.

Moreover, ZARA will continue to accelerate its expansion in China. Its parent company Inditex announced in March this year that its number of stores covering China will increase from 30 to 42 in 2011.

Management shrink

"Competition is imperative, fast fashion industry is in the strategic layout stage of horse race enclosure, and ZARA and UNIQLO are all necessary to accelerate the pace of opening stores." Cui Hongbo, senior partner of Lian Zhi Da Consulting Group, said. UNIQLO, H&M, ZARA, C&A and other foreign brands have been shifting the focus of internationalization to Asia this year, and constantly increasing the Chinese market and starting the layout of the two or three tier cities.

After frequent quality inspection, ZARA began to be questioned by the outside world about its quality at home and abroad. According to the people familiar with the matter, ZARA in Europe mostly built factories and even owns its own fabric factories, but it is impossible to set up factories in a short time in Asia. ZARA has begun to introduce OEM factories with equity cooperation.

Although its strong advantage lies in supply chain management, its expansion in Asia is too fast, and background management may not keep pace with it. "Even if copying the European set to the Asian region also needs a certain running in period, coupled with speed, cost and other pressures, it is likely that some conditions will be loosened, and there will be some problems in the level of internal control management." The source said.

Another industry believes that the "virtual door" and the positioning of ZARA is also related, "ZARA wants to maintain young fashion and quality brand, but the price positioning can not be too high, because the majority of its consumer groups are college students and young working people, so that the quality of the company may be sacrificed, otherwise the cost of raw materials will definitely increase, resulting in price increases."

Why is ZARA so "smart"?

Insiders pointed out: "ZARA has no competitors in China at present, and its Chinese consumers are so popular that it can completely follow their own standards. Chinese consumers' consumption psychology not only wants to buy big brands abroad, but the price is not high and very fashionable, so they tend to ignore quality problems, which is why ZARA has repeatedly been on the" black list ", but consumers' enthusiasm is not affected at all.

Cui Hongbo also believes that quality events will not fundamentally affect the normal sale of ZARA, "for clothing, consumers are originally of weak concern for quality." The main concern is fashion, fashion and other factors. The key is that brand identity and identification are the most important. Quality is a guarantee factor for buying clothes and a non incentive buying factor.

But Cui Hongbo believes that the reputation of ZARA brand will be greatly damaged. "The biggest impact is on brand reputation. This effect may not be too much in the short term, but in a more competitive environment, it will have an impact in the medium and long term." Cui Hongbo thinks.