Zara International Management

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“Control what happens to your product until the customers buys it” is one of Zara’s directives. This is why Zara controls all the design, procurement, and sales from its head quarter.

An innovative way of managing fast fashion retail

50% of the production is done in Spain and Portugal; it concerns the most fashionable items. Otherwise, the products that have got a longer life cycle are usually outsourced is Asia and Turkey.

In the headquarter, the clothing is divided in three lines: women, men, and children. Each line is responsible of the whole process of the clothes, from the design until the delivery in stores.

All these decisions enable to ensure a fast flow of information, production, and fast delivery: 24 hours In Europe, 48 hours in the USA, and 72 hours in Japan

The links between subsidiaries are very low, hence we can say Zara is a global company even though she has started to adapt some few products in culturally different countries. La Coruña is in fact a centralized hub (with most of key assets and resources) and its foreign subsidiaries are treated as pipelines to their market.

Tangible, Intangible & Human Resources

Zara, a fashionable organization, even in intern!

The majority of Zara’s employees works in the stores worldwide, which represented in 2015, 87% of the total number of employees in the group (7% of the employees work in core services, 1% in manufacturing, and 5% in logistics). We have already mentioned that Zara, due to its fast fashion retailing strategy, needs to react quickly to the customer’s demand. That’s why management is very important and regular trainings necessary.

These learnings target different professional groups and concern:

- entry training for new employees

- management and administration of teams

- information systems

- new technologies

- individual trainings plans

- store management systems

- presentation of collections

- training in products, raw materials and corporate social responsibility

Some language trainings are also implemented, mostly in Spanish and English.

« Both Inditex employees and its work processes are focused on listening to the customer. This forces us to reinvent ourselves daily and we do so thanks to a flexible business model based on innovation and team work. » (The customers include both the shareholders, employees, suppliers and citizens)

A new way to recruit employees

« Project Go » is an innovative program that promotes creativity and innovation. Employees or interested citizen, everyone is able to propose ones ideas to Zara. By giving a chance to everyone, Zara discovers each year new talents and almost 55% of the new recruitments are realized through this project.

Zara also adapted to generation Y by implementing a brand image on social media « to reach candidates via content conveying the Group’s philosophy ». Therefore, the candidates can exchange freely with the employees and have more visibility on the functionning and values of the company.

Finally, one of the main Human resources projects is Cantera project. Each year, important management and design schools are visited by the company to recruit talented persons. Once a young graduated integrates Zara, she or he will spend six months rotating between various department teams so that they get a holacratic view of the structure of the structure and organization of the company. They will be given a specific function after these 6 months.

An insight of the salaries in the company

Glassdoor is an innovative website which enables the employees to make visible all kind of information so that anyone can access to it. Zara is one of the few who have already decided to transmit this info. Here are few examples founded on this site, in France:

Sales assistant: from 1000 to 2000€ per month

Sales Associate/Stock Room: 819 to 891€ per month

Sales per hour: 9 to 10€

Merchandiser: 2000€ per month

Seller: 894 to 983€ per month

Operations assistant: 24 000 to 26 000€ a year

Human resources responsible: 24 000 to 26 000€ a year

Portfolio and Product’s Life Cycle

ZARA’s Portfolio

As explained previously, the Inditex group has built a multi-brand portfolio. This allows them to target various market segments more effectively. Zara is Inditex’s number one brand, and also the world’s largest fashion retailer.

It has several basic product lines, with men, women and kids clothing, but also the TRF product line, which basically is a juniors section for the store, with clothing geared to a teen audience and quality much like the Zara Basic line. It stands for Trafaluc.

Additionally, the brand also offers perfume, shoes, belts, and cosmetic lines.

ZARA Home

In 2003, Zara has launched a new extended branch, which is called Zara Home. The Zara Home brand includes different collections: Zara Home Kids, which offers bedding, nursery accessories, sleepwear and many more.

The awareness for Zara home is higher since customers already know Zara, its parent brand. Moreover, Zara evokes feelings of familiarity, which is a very positive association, which perhaps results in a greater probability of purchasing Zara Home.

Product Life Cycle

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Generally, a typical Product Life Cycle Curve looks like the one below. Sales decreases as the product moves over the time line.

As explained previously, Zara is involved in a high fashion industry, and its product offering are the latest trends and designs with a life of maximum to 5-6 weeks. We can consider Zara’s articles as short