Is Zara a fast fashion?
Zara is one of the largest fast fashion giants on the planet, but how is it treating its workers, the environment, and animals in the supply chain? This article is based on the Zara rating published in February 2022.
Zara scored just below 50% for environmental sustainability. Zara has recently publicized a list of environmental commitments. These goals span the next five years and include everything from water conservation to reducing waste in landfills. They've also worked to ban some harmful chemicals in production.
Fast-Fashion: Interestingly, the trend that helped propel Zara to the top is the cause of its most pressing weakness. With the focus on sustainability increasing among customers and policymakers Zara's weakness is balancing sustainability with fast-fashion.
However, the brand has recently faced three main challenges: e-commerce, competition and sustainability. To sustain its global expansion, the brand made a step toward digital expansion even before the pandemic hit, and it paid off. So far in 2020, Zara reports a 74% jump in online sales alone.
Modern slavery and child labor cases involving Zara in Brazilian factories were previously reported. Zara now cares more about its suppliers with higher transparency and worker empowerment initiatives. But the brand still doesn't pay a living wage across its supply chain.
Fast fashion is the term used to describe clothing designs that move quickly from the catwalk to stores to take advantage of trends. The collections are often based on styles presented at Fashion Week runway shows or worn by celebrities.
Zara is working on a clothes collection programme to give used garments a second life, whereby clothes collected are donated to non-profit organisations which help to reuse or recycle the garments. 100% eco-efficient stores.
We are working toward a circular economy model that permits lengthening the life cycle of our products. Our reuse and recycling programmes allow customers around the world to return their worn clothes, helping reduce waste and consumption of virgin raw materials.
Over the course of a year, Zara alone produces about 840 million garments for its 6,000 stores worldwide. One kilogram of fabric production emits about 23 kilograms of greenhouse gases, so the impact of Zara's yearly fabric production on greenhouse gas emissions is significant.
The brand could expand its customer base and encourage more shopping by investing more time to market themselves on digital platforms and improve its e-commerce sector's functionality. The biggest threat Zara is facing is the intense number and level of competition in the industry.
What is zaras unique selling point?
Zara's value proposition focuses on keeping up with fast-changing fashion trends. Its activity configuration allows it to spot trends and launch new pieces in less than three weeks. Competitors show two collections per year and take over nine months to get items to stores.
The Zara brand strategy
Its core values are found in four simple terms: beauty, clarity, functionality and sustainability. The secret to Zara's success has largely being driven by its ability to keep up with rapidly changing fashion trends and showcase it in its collections with very little delay.
The greatest risk for Zara is that the products that it creates more quickly than other retailers do not find a market; that they do not fit in with shoppers' current tastes.
Many more have even begun to boycott Zara specifically for its inappropriate association with forced labour camps in China and degrading working conditions in its Brazilian factories. Fast fashion brands such as Zara, expose their workers to extremely harsh working conditions around the world.
Zara shoppers are complaining about long lines and poor customer service at stores. Shoppers rushing back to stores, combined with a lack of retail workers, may be to blame, experts say. "The levels of rudeness is uncalled for and the lines extremely long," one customer wrote on Twitter.
Zara stores have been accused of labor abuses in supply chain subjecting workers to degrading conditions. This prompted many consumers to boycott the brand's products. The brand has been linked to forced labor camps in China, and its workers in Brazil are also subjected to inadequate working conditions.
As mentioned above, some of the factories Zara uses have been proven to release toxic chemicals and waste. Not only does this harm the environment, but it also harms the people working in clothing production facilities. Furthermore, employees often have to work under high-pressure situations.
In 2011 AHA, the contractor reportedly responsible for 90% of Zara's Brazilian production was found to have subcontracted work to a factory employing migrant workers from Bolivia and Peru in sweatshop conditions in Sao Paulo to make garments for the Spanish company.
It's hard to believe that “fast fashion” only started really in the late 1980s — Zara gets a lot of the credit or blame for taking the idea of quick-response manufacturing and really running with it.
Zara also sells its designs and styles inspired by the latest trends. The large variety of choices and product availability is very appealing to consumers. Because design and production time have decreased dramatically, it's now possible for fast-fashion retailers like Zara to deliver new styles every week.
Who is responsible for fast fashion?
The issue of fast fashion can be traced back to the unethical business practices of corporations and companies. The preceding reason as to why companies are primarily responsible for fast fashion is because not every consumer can avoid it. Many consumers cannot afford to buy ethically produced fashion.
Some of the world's largest clothing chains, including Zara, H&M, Gap and Topshop, have vowed to discontinue selling mohair apparel following allegations of animal cruelty at a dozen goat farms in South Africa.
Zara's parent company to invest $3 billion in e-commerce—and expanding physical stores. Inditex SA plans to invest 2.7 billion euros ($3 billion) to boost e-commerce operations of chains like Zara and Bershka and expand store space to gain an edge on rivals as the pandemic snarls the clothing-retail industry.
While Zara cannot be described as a vegan company, it does place emphasis upon using ethically sourced sheep wool and will not buy from any manufacturer that practices mulesing. It also insists that all its leather is produced as a byproduct of the meat-industry, rather than the cow being slaughtered just for its skin.
While some competitors outsource all production to Asia, Zara manufactures its most fashionable items – half of all its merchandise – at a dozen company-owned factories in Spain (particularly in Galicia), Portugal (northern part) and Turkey.
The success of fast fashion helped double the size of the fashion industry between 2000 and 2014. In 2021, the fast fashion sector is expected to generate $31 billion globally, an increase of 22% from 2020 — which represents more than a full recovery of COVID-19-related losses — according to Research and Markets.
Zara is recouping its losses as apparel sales rebound. After taking a hit during 2020 due to the coronavirus, the fast-fashion retailer's revenue has returned to pre-pandemic levels, parent company Inditex reported during its earnings this week.
Zara discounts only about 18% of its making, approximately half the levels of competitors. Instead of additional quantities per style, Zara produces extra styles, roughly 12,000 a year. So, that style sells out more fast and there are more new styles which are already waiting to come out.
Zara's strategy is to offer a higher number of available products than its competitors. While most clothing retailers manufacture and offer to the public for sale 2,000 to 4,000 different articles of clothing, Zara's production has been markedly higher, at over 10,000 pieces produced per year.
Zara has a consumer rating of 2.2 stars from 980 reviews indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Consumers complaining about Zara most frequently mention customer service, return policy and credit card problems.
What is Zara brand identity?
Zara's brand identity refers to the identity of the brand Zara created from Inditex group. Zara´s identity represents how Inditex group wants Zara to be seen, Zara´s differentiation from competitors and what the brand promises.
The ad, which has been seen in stores in England and Spain, features the slogan "Love Your Curves." While it's seemingly a well-intentioned message about body-positivity, there's a problem: The two models featured alongside the phrase are straight-size, and thus, the curves that Zara is asking customers to love aren't ...
Fast, funky, stylish, trendy and exciting, with something new to offer every week, stocking everything from separates to casual basics, jackets to layering options—this vocabulary has exhausted and enlivened Zara buffs the world over ever since the brand from Inditex SA first launched in 1975.
Just-in-Time Production
Known for staying ahead of the trends, Zara changes its apparel designs every two weeks on average; most of its competitors do so every 10–14 weeks. To maintain this lightning pace, Zara utilizes Just-in-Time (JIT) production methods to keep turnaround times as tight as possible.
Unrelenting focus on the customer
They prioritize customer needs and insights. The staff and employees are trained to provide the best customer service possible. The brand uses cutting-edge systems to track the location of garments instantly and makes those most in demand rapidly available to customers.
We've been moving towards the current state of play since 1989, when the phrase "fast fashion" was coined by the New York Times in reference to Zara boasting that it took them "15 days between a new idea and getting it into the stores".
ZARA (Spanish: [ˈθaɾa]), is a Spanish apparel retailer based in Arteixo, A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. The company specialises in fast fashion, and their products include clothing, accessories, shoes, swimwear, beauty, and perfumes.
It's hard to believe that “fast fashion” only started really in the late 1980s — Zara gets a lot of the credit or blame for taking the idea of quick-response manufacturing and really running with it.
In the 1980s Zara disrupts the fashion industry by radically reconfiguring the supply chain and creating the fast-fashion category. It is able to almost instantly react to fashion trends by vertically integrating its supply chain.
