Zara Questions Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Zara Questions - Case Study Example Then, both internal as well as external production flowed into Zara’s central distribution center. From there, the products were shipped to strategically located and attractive stores twice a week, which in a way eliminates the need for warehouses. This way Zara is able to design and reach the finished goods in stores within 4 to 5 weeks, and just 2 weeks for the restocking of existing products. 2. The major competitors of Zara as described in the case study are The Gap, Hennes & Mauritz, and Benetton. The Gap is the U.S. based retailer of casual clothes particularly selling T-shirts and jeans. Its store operations are mainly U.S. centric but its production is internationalized, with 90 percent of their finished products being outsourced from outside the U.S. Hennes and Mauritz is the Sweden based retailer of casual clothes and is regarded as the closest competitor to Zara. H&M has strongly internationalized its operations because of which it generates more than half of its sales from foreign stores. Benetton is the Italy based retailer who mainly manufactured and sold brightly colored knitwear. It outsourced most of its production to subcontractors. The competitors who are not described in the case study include Uniqlo and Primark. Uniqlo is the Japanese retailer of casual wears. It manufactures its products in-house and also sources from its supply units in China and Thai land. Primark is an international food and cloth retailing group, with stores in a number of European countries. It sources its finished products from India, Bangladesh, and others. 3. The major strength of Zara is that it has a broader and optimal vertical scope when compared with its competitors. That is, while Zara owns and operates its production as well as its stores, its competitors due to their narrower vertical scope maximally outsourced their production and even licensed their stores. For example, both The Gap and H&M have outsourced all of their production to Asian countries