What'S The Difference Between ZARA, H&M, UNIQLO And GAP? The Truth Is Here!

On the face of it, ZARA, H&M, UNIQLO and GAP seem to be singing at a similar pace, but they are really different.

What are the four fast fashion brands?

ZARA

First, ZARA, the four most powerful brands, is the most successful but most independent.

The brand competitiveness of ZARA is not imitated by all fashion brands in the world at present.

Without scale, after all, it is possible for everyone to achieve scale.

The mode used by ZARA is called Vertical Integration. Vertical shipment greatly shortens the shipment time: the average is 2 weeks, so the fast fashion brand represented by ZARA can have 15-20 Collection per year.

In comparison, the whole process of ordinary brand shipment takes 4 to 6 months, with only two Collection in a year.

However, due to the adoption of the Vertical Intergation mode, ZARA can control the whole process better and faster than other fast fashion brands (from market research, design, plate making, sample making, mass production, pportation, retail) to H&M, which is also known for its speed of shipment, which is 5 days longer.

In pursuit of speed, ZARA can sacrifice a lot of costs.

In the production process, ZARA relies on the countless handicraft shops and family factories in La Coruna where headquarters are located. Many products are directly produced locally, and only gradually have been outsourced in recent years. However, in the past few years, H&M has made 75% of its products in Asia and has now outsourced production.

However, for this reason, the price of H&M is about ZARA 50%-70% (without considering the cost of raw materials).

All long-distance pportation is an aircraft, instead of a cargo ship, willing to pay high freight charges rather than spend advertising and marketing expenses, ZARA's marketing expenses account for only 0.3%-0.4% of the total cost, while other brands account for about 3%-4%.

Despite the high cost of pursuing fast, ZARA's gross margins and net interest rates are still comparable to those of H&M, and ZARA is unwilling to save the cost in order to increase profitability.

Therefore, ZARA has reached the highest level of all fashion brands and retailers. My teachers in Milan never call ZARA brand, because it focuses more on production and retail links, and never uses design to locate the style of brand products, nor does it have a Brand Identity that a fashion brand should have.

All the clothes in the 1.ZARA headquarters warehouse will not stay for more than three days. The store will order products to the headquarters two times a week to replenish products, and the inventory turnover rate is 3-4 times higher than that of other brands.

On average, only 15% of the clothes are discounted each quarter, while the other brands are 50%.

2., on average, only 15% of the clothes per quarter need to be discounted, while the other brands are 50%.

3. the average customer goes to ZARA17 times a year, and the other brands only have 4 times.

At the same time, ZARA's credit is also attributed to their "inverted" design concept.

ZARA's HR said that the core of ZARA is shops, because only shops can really reach customers to understand the needs of customers.

Therefore, stores provide sales data and submit it to storefront managers. The storefront manager collate the results and submit them to the design department. The design part designs the style according to the needs of customers, and then submitting it to the commercial sector to evaluate the cost and price. After that, it starts to plate, sample production, pfer it to the factory production, and finally store it in the ZARA super logistics warehouse (9 times as much as Amazon). There will be countless freight cars on the doorway of the warehouse to pport products to other European areas or airports two times a day.

In this process, on average, 20 minutes for a design, a garment can be designed, and more than 25 thousand new designs can be designed each year, 4-6 times that of H&M.

Because customers' demand for fashion is changing, the data collected from shops are timeliness, so fast is the most fundamental and important magic weapon for this model.

It is precisely because of ZARA's unique mode that the rest of the existing brands can not be emulated, because if they imitate, designers will no longer play a decisive role in the design, or even rebuild the designer team, logistics system, production process and so on.

But there are drawbacks to this pattern:

1. because of the control of the whole process, the operational risk is increased. If there is an economic downturn or a downturn in the industry, the pressure can not be pferred to suppliers, such as requiring suppliers to reduce their prices.

2., it is impossible to integrate national advantages and maximize benefits.

3. shops are directly managed by brands, unable to expand rapidly through proxy and other forms (such as Benetton in Italy), and some of the property also needs to invest in new shops and renovation of existing shops, which reduces asset turnover (ZARA Assets Turnover is 1.4, GAP is 1.8, H&M is 2).

4. as we all know, the plagiarism problem, ZARA has been copied for many years, you told me to sue, the lawsuit lost, you lose money, anyway, I can earn back (unlike the Forever21 of the United States after being charged with a hubbub.

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In short, ZARA is creating a completely new business model, a business model based on customer needs.

Therefore, ZARA's current enemy is only itself.

Only by fully recognizing and controlling the pros and cons can we achieve long-term, stable and sustainable development.

Gap

GAP, I just want to use one sentence to describe its present situation: the thin camel is bigger than the horse.

As a former sales leader of the fashion industry, GAP was rated by Forbes as one of the ten fashion brands that might disappear in the next ten years. In 2014, GAP2018 had just made a project to promote the brand in Italy. Now that we have asked about the competitive advantage, there is no need to mention the business model.

From the design point of view, when it comes to GAP, you often think of those simple styles, jeans and LOGO tops.

But this year's GAP advertisement fully demonstrates the tenet of GAP in order to remain unchanged. When GAP's marketing manager comes to presentation, she says that GAP hopes to create a style that belongs to everyone in a simple style.

But if you look at the Facebook and instagram of GAP, you will find that it is a small refreshing route, many of which are in line with the simple fashion in the trend forecast of WGSN.

Although in recent years, GAP has been unable to satisfy young consumers who are constantly seeking novelty for lack of fixed style. However, because of its simple design and high quality fabrics and edition, it has won many loyal customers' favor, coupled with the trend style which is mainly guided by simple function, so that the design aspect has barely found a soul destination.

Here is a small and fresh screenshot of GAP's Instagram.

In addition, it seems that ZARA and H&M have been accused of environmental pollution. GAP's co founders Doris and Don Fisher have launched the "DO MORE THAN SELL CLOTHES" initiative. It seems that organic cotton should be promoted to promote sustainable agricultural production, hoping to arouse people's brand awareness and re establish brand image with the brand's social mission.

H&M

H&M, another giant.

The fast fashion brands, which are equally excellent, are more inclined to take account of the shipping time and product cost in the mode, so they are not as fast as ZARA, but rely on cost leadership to occupy a place in this industry.

The degree of fashion is not as good as ZARA, after all, ZARA is also a big card, and copied to the essence.

H&M is the first choice for cock silk youth in Europe. The latest design is on the street, what big prints, cowboys, big letters, and big camouflage.

Product defects are also obvious, the quality is not flattering, the fabric is the worst of the four brands (once I washed it).

But like ZARA, it is changing the clothing from the consumer durables to the innovators of fast moving consumer goods, so the quality is not so important.

Among them, the most popular place for H&M is sportswear, which is not sold in China. It is estimated that Chinese people do not like sports.

In fact, H&M's sportswear is very professional, with a very fine classification (running, tennis, and even yoga). The price is cheaper, not cheaper than ADI Nike, so it is popular and sales are very colorful.

On the other hand, H&M has more choices in size selection, and even a lot of them are made for the sake of expectant mothers.

The following is a comparison of H&M's additional size statistics in the UK and the main competitive brands in the UK:

Therefore, it can be said that H&M and ZARA meet their customers' needs in different ways. The former is in daily wear and use, and the latter is in design.

In operation, H&M pays attention to low cost, and ZARA pays attention to product update speed.

Uniqlo

The last one, UNIQLO.

Cheap, comfortable, high quality fabric, simple style and easy to match. Later, the UT series was added. Someone once bought 13 T-shirts of their family one summer, which is for different artists to create patterns, some of which are not even willing to wear.

If you want to talk about the core competitiveness of UNIQLO, there are several things to mention:

1, fabric

This is related to the history of uniqo. It was all over Japan and still in autumn and winter, a new style of cashmere coat was introduced to let uniqo taste the sweetness brought by the fabric. Since the uniqo is constantly innovating in the use and development of the fabric, such as a sheep in Inner Mongolia's woolen ranch, which is specially bred for the fabric of the uniqo, and the light Heattech series of warm underwear, are the products of the constant pursuit of excellent fabrics.

2, service

This does not need to be said. A friend once worked in UNIQLO. All the customers you passed by had to say hello, and the whole day was dry and dry.

The requirement for greeting customers is not comparable to that of other brands.

Other services can be appreciated.

3, details

Like Muji, shop details are extremely demanding. All clothes are stacked in a very particular way. For example, it is easy for customers to see the folding of the trouser legs.

Another detail has to be said, which is believed to be a mirror by many people.

In yellow people's silhouette, especially the facial contour is not deep, it is even more "flat" than that of Europeans and Americans. In fact, yellow people are not suitable for lighting directly from above. Therefore, when looking at the mirror, the light shines from the front or rear, which is more suitable for the yellow race.

4. Craft

Seriously observing UNIQLO's shirt technology, the sewing stitch and the reverse triangle of the chest pocket are all the technological requirements for Western-style clothes. This detail is all asked. What other reasons are there to query the craft of UNIQLO?

5, UT series

T-shirt is the simplest and direct way to convey culture and art. UT is a collaboration with artists. The art patterns are directly shown on T-shirts, restoring the original role of T-shirts, and selling a cheap product with a touch of art.