How Does ZARA Create "Fast Fashion"?

First look at a group of China. clothing The shocking data of the industry: by the end of last month, the total inventory of 50 listed companies in China has reached 57 billion yuan. What is the concept? According to the statistics of China's retail industry in 2012, excluding the old Fengxiang and Si Jie global companies in the top 10 of the listed garment enterprises, the sales volume of the whole previous ten years is only 58 billion 900 million, basically equivalent to hoarding all the goods of the top 10 enterprises in the industry. It can be said that China's clothing industry has reached the most critical moment. This is in stark contrast to the fact that the international fast fashion brands represented by H&M, ZARA, UNIQLO, GAP and so on have been constantly expanding in China, so the Chinese garment industry has started a large-scale reflection, and only promoted "fast fashion" to save the Chinese garment industry.

Usually, the definition of fast fashion is "fast new products", "parity" and "keep up with fashion trends". To speak more quickly is to be quick and accurate. It seems simple, but is it really feasible for domestic enterprises to save themselves?

　 How does ZARA create "fast fashion"?

Look at ZARA, the first fast fashion brand in the world, and the first company to put forward the concept of fast fashion in the world. The reason why it can put forward this set of fast fashion theory has its unique advantages. It mainly focuses on the following three aspects:

First, the headquarters production base is located in a relatively low labor cost area in Europe, such as Portugal and Spain. Abundant production resources and geographical advantages in neighboring Europe make their cost competitive.

Secondly, the fashion trend that is close to the mainstream of Europe. Despite the strong rise of new economies and cultural bodies represented by China and Japan in recent years, it is not enough to overturn Western centrism. The western United States and Europe are still recognized as the birthplace of fashion in the world. Especially in New York, London, Paris and Milan. And Zara close to these areas, its buyers have a natural fashion sense and a good fashion culture atmosphere.

Finally, the short supply chain cycle shortens the supply chain cycle to 15 days. This has great advantages in the world.

　　 American style Handan learning

Having understood the advantages of the other side, the next step is to learn. The typical case is to see the US, the first domestic brand to learn fast fashion brands. Many years ago, when Metersbonwe founder moved to Shanghai, she hoped to learn the fast fashion style of Zara, and put forward the concept of very advanced virtual operation at the time, outsourcing all the non core businesses such as production, manufacturing, packaging and so on. At the same time, the ERP system of the enterprise itself was built, and IT was realized. We should know that this is still a major move made when the Internet application is not developed. At that time, the American business system was also included in the classic case of many companies, and it was also called the Chinese version ZARA.

Unfortunately, as long as we look at the annual financial report of Smith Barney last year, we knew that the failure of Handan's toddler was a failure. The specific reasons are basically made up of the following reasons:

　 First, blood and fashion cannot be imitated.

ZARA is close to Europe and has a natural sense of fashion. Chinese enterprises rely entirely on the local market. Designer Even if you occasionally invite a designer, it's only temporary. Therefore, for the younger group, pursuing the mainstream fashion life in Europe is their demand. You can change everything, but you can't change the genetic lineage of the enterprise. Unless you move your headquarters to Milan or London, it's a good idea, but the cost or the real reason is not allowed.

　　 Second, the buyer VS independent design.

ZARA fast, because she has a group of excellent buyers, its strategy is direct imitation. From this point of view, it is deeply rooted in the spirit of lean entrepreneurship, first imitating and then surpassing. And these domestic enterprises are designed by the designers, then produced, then ordered and sold. This process is obviously unable to pursue fast, so they can not learn. Unless there are a group of excellent buyers like Zara.

　　 Third, join VS all direct battalion.

We must admit that the franchise system has indeed played a fast expanding role in the early expansion of the US state. The franchise system has an unparalleled advantage for a brand to expand rapidly to the whole country, get more operating capital and expand its popularity. However, franchisees can not control factors even bigger, you can not test the bottom so that many franchisees unified to a fully consistent operation system, so if one day, the United States to implement ZARA information, so that the headquarters is responsible for the supply of franchisees, the loss of the right to own the order of the franchisee will not be "forced"? And ZARA is a direct camp, obviously does not exist this problem, so that the United States can push all the allies to do the direct camp, the United States will it?

　　 Fourth, the order will be VS less quantity.

The biggest feature of ZARA is imitation. This is the foundation of its rapid reflection. It is also commendable for data mining and application. It is said that each ZARA store manager is equipped with a PDA, each sale of a piece, headquarters can immediately know very clearly, and then according to the data feedback fast replenishment. In the first quarter of the year, all goods are decided once, and then shipped and manufactured. How can you ensure that you are always alert to the market and consumer sense of fashion? In this case, a popular fashion is basically maintained at around 15 days in today's increasingly developed information technology, which is just a cycle of the ZARA supply chain.

　　 Fifth, the core of learning is not the difference of ideas.

The gap between this concept is the traditional Chinese business thinking and the new marketing communication, especially the digital marketing characterized by rapid reflection. The traditional Chinese clothing enterprises still stay in the push stage. That is, I guess the market demand, then go to the production of products, do not have a deep insight into the needs of consumers, and the fast fashion brands represented by ZARA, rely on big data, and cloud computing these deep rising Internet tools, which deepens the user's understanding. Even closer to the ideal C2B era of flexible customization.

If you want to learn ZARA, local enterprises need to reflect deeply on the current supply channels, change the traditional marketing channel thinking, make a big operation for themselves, and make deep use of IT Internet, digital tools, cloud computing and big data to transform the supply chain management process. It may well be able to gain a firm footing in the next 10 years of war. If so, it is a blessing for Chinese traditional clothing enterprises.