Reported By Yuntak CHA, Maeil Business Newspaper (www.mk.co.kr)
Translated by Charles Kim, Hazel Suk, Sunny Kim and Hoon Choi - Finance One,
Inc.
9/6/2013
Maeil Business Newspaper
The Big 3: Fast Fashion (SPA) Brands and Strategies
·Fast-catching fashion
trend
·Efficient inventory
management
·Heattech, AIRism
·Concentrating on
development of high utility
fabrics
·Relies on long-term trend
·80 % of products
produced in advance
·Effective use of 700
partner companies
Comparative table of 3 major global SPA brands
Brand
ZARA
UNIQLO
H&M
Mother Company
Inditex
Fast Retailing Apparel
Co.
H&M Hennes &
Mauritz AB
Home Country
(Founding Year)
Spain (1975)
Japan (1984)
Sweden (1947)
Sales
$21.6 B
(as of 1/31/13)
$9.1 B
(as of 8/31/12)
$18.8 B
(as of 11/30/12)
Stores
6,009 stores around
the world –Inclusive
other brands such as
Bershka, Pull&Bear,
Stradivarius, Massimo
Dutti and Oysho
2,222 stores around
the world – Inclusive
other brands such as
GU, Theory,
Princesse Tam.Tam
2,800 stores around
the world
Trend Analysis
*80% of its designers
involved in designer
collection
*20% involved in
street & celebrities
fashion
*Focus on material
development instead
of fashion trends
*Utilize global
fashion trend
forecaster such as
WGSN
SCM – Supply
Chain Management
*Secure fabrics in
advance
*14 company-owned
factories
*Secure fabrics in
advance
*No company-owned
factories
*No company-owned
factories
*Partner companies
secure fabric and
produce
Store Management
*Unified VMD
*Headquarter
distributes VMD
manual twice a month
*Grant priority over
franchise license to
well-performed store
manager
*Locally customized
VMD
*Wait until available
for the best store
location
**Sources: Sales and number of stores are based on annual report of each company, and Business Week.
VMD: Visual Merchandising Display
Introduction
It is the heyday of fast fashion (SPA:
Specialty retailer of
Private label
Apparel). Past
clothing companies forecast fashion trend by sending their designers to fashion shows twice a
year, and they spent 9 months to a year to design and produce clothing for the following year. In
contrast, SPA brands are introducing clothing items that embody the latest trends at affordable
prices on a weekly basis. The three leading global SPA brands are Zara, Uniqlo, and H&M (Big
3). Although the Big 3 companies are constantly competing with one another in sales, brand
recognition, and market share, each employs distinct and unique strategies. Despite the
differences in each company’s approach to providing the trendiest clothing to consumers, fashion
trend analysis, supply chain management (SCM), and store operations are at the core of the Big
3’s strategies. This report analyzes and compares the core strategies utilized by the Big 3.
ZARA
Zara of Spain best fits the general definition of SPA. Zara has over 1,900 stores
worldwide (6,009 stores if Pull & Bear, Bershka and other brands are included) and introduces
minimum two newly-designed items per week – 10,000 new items in a year. Only 15–20% of
Zara’s total production is pre-made while 80-85% is produced according to the market reaction.
This is perhaps the reason why Zara is the most responsive to fashion trend among the
Big 3. Due to high inventory turnover ratio, consumers may not find on Zara floors the items that
they have seen in the previous week. Of course, Zara undoubtedly uses this tactic as a marketing
tool to attract consumers.
Zara employs 80 designers, of which 80% concentrate on runway designer collections
and 20% on analyzing up-to-the-minute street and celebrity fashions. In addition, product
managers and store managers share consumers’ responses every week. It takes Zara merely three
weeks to pick out a trend and move onto production.
To minimize cost, Zara secures fabric in advance while delaying the finalized design as
long as possible. Then, the prepared fabrics are processed in its own 14 cutting-edge facilities in
Spain. By owning its production factories, Zara has eliminated the need to rely on other
companies while keeping the production process flexible. Next, the finishing touches are made in
over 300 facilities in countries such as Portugal.
The last factor which contributes to Zara’s success is its store presentation. Each store is
identical to the others regardless of location. This uniformity is achieved through distribution of
instruction manuals every two weeks and strict enforcement of the Visual Merchandising
Display (VMD) in each store.
UNIQLO
Japan’s Uniqlo deploys a completely different strategy from Zara. Some argue that
Uniqlo is not an SPA brand because of its commitment to developing long-lasting clothing items.
Uniqlo is not sensitive to trends in fashion. Instead, it puts much efforts in establishing time-
enduring trends. Rather than working on short term fashion trends, Uniqlo’s strategy revolves
around developing unique fabrics which last for a long time. “Airism” in summer and “Heattech”
in winter seasons best represent Uniqlo’s philosophy of ingenuity and originality. Contrast to
Zara’s lavish one-piece dresses, Uniqlo produces jeans, under garments, jackets, and children’s
clothes that are casual but are of high quality.
Uniqlo’s designers work as project teams to develop new fabrics before studying fashion
trends. Once the laboratory develops a new fabric, designers in Tokyo, New York, Paris, and
Milano begin to make designs that fit the new fabric. The time it takes from development of
fabric to product distribution is inevitably longer than competing SPA companies. Producing
large quantities of a handful, selected items is definitely an advantage, however, because of cost
reduction.
Uniqlo secures its fabric in advance by developing new materials in cooperation with
partnering companies. Since Uniqlo does not operate its own production factories, 90% of its
overall production comes from China.
For store locations, Uniqlo actively searches for areas with high potentials. By awarding
high-achieving store managers with priority right in opening new franchise stores, Uniqlo
successfully retains its employees.
H & M
H&M of Sweden uses strategies which are a mixture of Zara’s and Uniqlo’s methods.
H&M produces 80% of its clothes in advance and introduces remaining 20% based on the most
current market trend. H&M offers trendy clothes similar to Zara’s, but it also offers diversified
items on children and accessories like Uniqlo. Hence, H&M is considered a hybrid of Zara and
Uniqlo.
H&M tends to rely on outsourcing from design to production. Although H&M’s core
operation relies on its designers, creative directors, and pattern makers to stay on top of the latest
trends, it also uses the services of fashion trend forecast companies such as Worth Global Styles
Network (WGSN).
The most prominent characteristic of H&M is its ability to operate efficiently with
partner companies. H&M utilizes over 700 partner companies in over 20 different countries as if
they are its own. Thirty production oversight offices of H&M are also strategically located for
easy contact with the partner companies. H&M shares its information with the partner companies
on the latest fashion trends and the internal matters of the company. Unlike Zara, H&M does not
own factories and does not strive to secure fabrics in advance. Instead, its partners secure fabrics
on behalf of H&M. With this method of operation, H&M simply has to place an order with one
of the partner companies which already have the necessary fabrics. Once H&M finds a desired
location for a new store operation, the company waits until the space is available. Similar to
Zara, H&M features uniform stores worldwide. Some stores, however, feature elements and
components that are specifically tailored to that region.
Conclusion
The global Big 3 SPA brands are growing fast by developing their own unique strategies
to build competitive advantage over the others. Young Joon Cho of L.E.K, a global consulting
company, says, “Each of the Big 3 SPA brands has achieved success through its own growth
process, market positioning, and brand concept. Aspiring SPA brands should go beyond
improving their efficiency in distribution and must work on differentiating themselves from
competitors just as the Big 3 have done.”
Link: http://news.mk.co.kr/newsRead.php?year=2013&no=815741
