An Analysis of Zara, 2023 Case Study
Key Learning Outcomes
By the end of the case, students should be able to:
- Understand the broad macro and micro environment of Zara across its major markets with a focus on the challenges faced by the brand.
- Evaluate Zara's strategy, and business environment in order to identify issues, risks, and opportunities and how they affect its operations and strategic position in a market, using concepts such as PESTLE, SWOT, Porter's Five Forces, VRIO, and generic competitive strategies.
- Use our business strategy case studies to understand real-life strategy applications
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Zara is one of the biggest international fashion companies in the world (Zara Website). Founded in 1974, Zara is a global fashion retailer that was spearheaded by Rosalia Mera together with her husband Amancio Ortega. The clothing retailer has more than 3000 stores for both kids and home stores operating in 96 countries and is the flagship brand of the Inditex Group (Forbes, 2023). Zara is well known for its ability to develop a new product and get to its stores within a fortnight whereas other retailers take six months. Its biggest market is in Spain with 547 stores, followed by China with 229 stores, France with 145 stores, Russia with 144 stores, and Italy with 134 stores. Zara is one of seven brands of the Inditex Company which is one of the world’s largest fashion retailers according to Inditex.com. The major competitors of the brand include; Asos, Nike, H&M, and Adidas.
In 2022, Inditex, which is the holding company of the Zara brand had the highest sales among the selected major apparel retailers and manufacturers which were (H&M), and Fast Retailing which were ranked second and third, in that order (Statista, 2023).
In 2022, the brand was valued at $13 billion which was a decrease from that of 2019. It also raised a revenue of $26 billion up from $21 billion in 2021 (statista, 2022).
This report is going to use the case study of the Zara brand to study the macro and micro changes in the global fashion industry. The report will use frameworks such as PESTLE, SWOT, Porter's Five Forces, VRIO, and generic competitive strategies, to undertake a strategic overview of the Zara brand, including its financial performance, competitive microenvironment, competitive advantage, technological improvement, pricing strategy, and many others.
This analysis answered key questions such as; what are the key strengths and competencies of Zara? What is the major problem faced by Zara? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Zara business model? What are the key strategies of Zara that have led the brand to success? What is Zara's biggest competitive advantage over other retailers?