Investigating the Impact of Globalisation on Trends of Fashion Industry

This research proposal investigates the impact of globalisation on the trends of the fashion industry, with a case study on Blue Inc. It explores the benefits and challenges of changing fashion trends, strategies to overcome challenges, and provides recommendations for Blue Inc. The research methodology includes a literature review and qualitative research approach.

Research Proposal

Executive Summary
With increasing the emergence of globalisation, demands of customers for
purchasing clothing, footwear and other apparels, is rapidly shifted towards latest
trends. They always seek to get trendy clothes which match their lifestyle on reasonable
rates. But it affects growth and profitability of brands and retail organisations that are
associated within fashion industry, in both negative and positive manner. Hereby,
increasing demand of products indicates positive consequences of impact of
globalisation on fashion trends, that aid to generate high sales and revenue. But
decreasing product-life cycle increases stocks and inventories also, that leads to
increase wastages and affect both companies and ecosystem adversely. For this
project manager conduct analysis through different methods such as qualitative,
quantitative, primary and secondary. This is so because that will help in developing
more effective decision through the reliable as well as effective information.

Table of contents
Executive Summary......................................................................................................................2
Topic: Investigating the impact of globalisation on trends of fashion industry. A research
on Blue Inc.....................................................................................................................................1
Introduction.....................................................................................................................................1
Overview of project..............................................................................................................1
Primary objectives...............................................................................................................1
Secondary Objectives.........................................................................................................1
Hypothetical Analysis..........................................................................................................2
Literature Review..........................................................................................................................2
Influence of globalisation on trends of fashion industry.................................................2
Benefits and challenges of changes in fashion trend....................................................3
Strategies to overcome from challenges in fashion trend.............................................4
Research Methodology................................................................................................................5
Research findings.............................................................................................................................6
Research evaluation.....................................................................................................................6
Recommendations........................................................................................................................6
References.....................................................................................................................................8

Topic: Investigating the impact of globalisation on trends of fashion industry. A
research on Blue Inc.
Introduction
Overview of project
Today, with emerging globalisation, every aspect of business and trends of
marketplace changes continuously. In context with fashion industry, globalisation affects
business of organisations that deal in this sector, in terms of production, marketing
channels, distribution and more (Nayak, Akbari and Far, 2019). A study on this concept
is conducted under present report where, Blue Inc. is chosen for making investigation.
This fashion retail store operating its business within UK with more than 100 stores and
offers a wide range of products – clothing, accessories and footwear. But with emerging
trends in fashion due to globalisation, it has kept its update with changing in demands of
customers to match their lifestyles. To conduct project on this topic, the following tasks
are taken under considerations –
Primary objectives
“To determine the impact of globalisation on changing trends of fashion
industry.” A case study on Blue Inc.
Secondary Objectives
 To evaluate the way globalisation changes the current trends of fashion industry
 To identify the benefits and challenges of changing fashion trends due to
globalisation on Blue Inc.
 To develop strategies that will help Blue Inc. in reducing the negative impact of
changes in current fashion trends due to globalisation
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Hypothetical Analysis
Hypothesis: Trends in fashion industry are more likely to be affected by the
emerging concept of globalisation, which creates major challenges for Blue Inc. in
running its business profitably.
Literature Review
To gather adequate information on a chosen topic, several articles are explored,
where researchers' point of views is summarised to address the objectives, in following
way –
Influence of globalisation on trends of fashion industry
As per theoretical perspectives of Umam and Sommanawat (2019), it has been
analysed that fashion today, is going through the substantial changes, after emerging
the concept of globalisation (Nayak, Akbari and Far, 2019). This industry includes
elements like clothing, textile, footwear and accessories. People with emergence of
foreign companies like Blue Inc. at their local market, are now updated and being
informed with each change in trend, via social networking sites, television, magazines
and more. Therefore, culture assimilation is considered as one of the main influences of
globalisation on fashion trends (Howard, Essuman and Asare, 2019). Changes in trends
indicates the new market, advancement in technologies, increase in trading etc.
including shift in customer preferences for clothing, footwear and other apparels. Due to
globalisation, there is a potential turn in improving economic conditions of market that
helps in increasing growth of business and per capita income.
Globalisation also leads to shape the cross-border trade, that assists companies
like Blue Inc. to rethink on pricing and sourcing strategies (Ten Trends for the fashion
industry to watch in 2019, 2019). Fast fashion decreases the product life cycle as well,
where to maintain production quality and speed, Blue Inc. need to develop new
strategies, by taking tough commercial decisions. Along with this, growing consumer
desires for sustainability, affordability and variety of clothes, indicates that the high
demand of trendy attires that should match with their lifestyles.
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Benefits and challenges of changes in fashion trend
According to views of Fares and Lebbar (2019), it has been evaluated that World
is now, becoming more interconnected due to advancement in technology, where every
firm gains advantage to globalise its business at vast level. This would highly influence
the fashion industry, because globalisation leads to increase trade activities, which
changes the taste and preferences of customers by getting a wide range of products.
Changes in trends increase demand of clothing, footwear and other apparels, where
people to keep their status quo with latest fashion desires to buy such products on any
cost. This would give advantages to Blue Inc. that deal in fashion industry, to increase
sales by offering most trendy clothes to targeted customers (Dubey and et. al., 2019). In
context with Blue Inc., it is one of the largest menswear retailers in UK, which has its
stores nationwide. With emergence of globalisation, by increasing demand of customers
for trendy attires, this company gets benefits to generate high revenue (Umam and
Sommanawat, 2019). Along with this, most beneficial consequences of globalisation
within fashion trends, is increasing accessibility of people towards new fashion. So, this
would lead to increase production rate of companies, with exchange of ideas as well as
information about availability of raw materials and fabrics on low cost, to reduce
production cost (The State of Fashion 2019: A year of Awakening, 2018). Through this
process, Blue Inc. gets advancement to update its inventories with latest trendy clothes
and other products from multiple brands on less production cost.
Apart from many benefits, several challenges also arise by changes in fashion
trends. Increasing clothing and other apparel production leads to increase massive level
of wastages, that highly affects profitability of Blue Inc. and arises questions on its
sustainable position also (Yang, Tan and Xue, 2019). In case of Blue Inc., as it deals in
retail sector therefore, to meet increased demand of customers for latest trends, it must
update its stores as per changes in fashion lifestyles. Along with this, recycling the
products or increasing production rates, both highly responsible for emission of
greenhouse gases (Taplin and Winterton, 2019). This would put adverse impact on
ecosystem, which put pressure on organisations including Blue Inc. to focus on
maintaining sustainability in business. Therefore, recycling or reducing the wastage and
maintaining the inventories, is another main challenge of changing fashion trend.
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(Source: Ten Trends for the fashion industry to watch in 2019)
The above mentioned graph show about increase in clothing sales as well as decline in
clothing utilization around the world. Through this Blue Inc. can develop more effective
decision which help them in conduct their work more effectively according to
preferences of customers. In addition to this, respective graph show that according to
changing time demand of clothing sales are increasing but there is also rapid decline in
the clothing utilisation.
Strategies to overcome from challenges in fashion trend
According to expert views of Brooks (2019), it has been determined that it is a
time for fashion companies to grab opportunities instead of thinking about surmounting
challenges. Regardless of size of organisations and segment, they are required to
digitalise their business first, to achieve faster speed in business to reach market. Along
with this, both retailers and brands need to take active stance on way to satisfy increase
demands of customers and on social issues, in order to create sustainability and radical
transparency in business (Zmami and Ben-Salha, 2019). By taking risk to self-disrupt
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Illustration 1: Growth of clothing sales and decline in clothing utilisation

the own identity, they can create changes in operations as per fluctuations in fashion
trends. In case of Blue Inc., this firm needs to make investment in increasing its
productivity and resilience, so that negative consequences of changing fashion trends
can be reduced (Grilec, Petrak and Naglic, 2019). Since apparel trade is going to
reshape by trade tensions, new barriers and uncertainties, therefore, this would provide
opportunity to Blue Inc., to offer its products in developing markets by renegotiations of
trade agreements. This would help in reducing its inventories of old stocks by selling
them in emerging markets on less rate via mobile shopping to drone delivery.
Another main challenge that apparel industry faces is wastages of production
due to decrease in product life cycle, therefore, for self-disrupting, management of Blue
Inc. needs to engage in digital landgrab (Dubey and et. al., 2019). This would help in
diversifying ecosystem by using automation as well as data analytics, to reduce
wastages, by responding quickly to latest trends. Along with this, to protect ecosystem
from negative consequences of increase in production rate, companies are required to
adopt “Go-Green” concept.
Research Methodology
To conduct a project on chosen topic i.e. “Investigating the impact of
globalisation on trends of fashion industry”, it is essential to use effective tools and
techniques, with appropriate research methods (Brooks, 2019). In this regard, for
working on present project, only sources are undertaken, in order to address the framed
research problems and check the hypothesis in efficient manner. For this purpose,
secondary information is gathered by summarising the main outcomes of articles which
are already prepared by other researchers and taken from authenticate sources only,
which would help in help obtaining the outcomes in less period of time (Yang, Tan and
Xue, 2019). For analysing the secondary information in literature part, thematic analysis
is undertaken that helps in identifying the reliable information from internet resources
more effectively. In addition to this, it also helps in addressing research problem more
systematically, by taking appropriate articles of each themes, so that entire problems
can be met.
Furthermore, as there are number of researches approaches available like
qualitative, quantitative and mixed approaches (Zmami and Ben-Salha, 2019). In
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general, qualitative research approaches are used for undertaking a theoretical study,
that helps in developing a new concept for addressing present investigating problem.
On the other hand, quantitative approaches are used to numerically interpret the
information and conclude result accordingly. Apart from these, mixed approach includes
concepts of both qualitative and quantitative research approaches, but it undertakes a
much cost and time for completing a project (Grilec, Petrak and Naglic, 2019).
Research findings
Therefore, to complete the present research, qualitative approaches are used, by
considering the wide concept of present topic, which would only be analysed by
gathering secondary information. In this regard, making a discussion on literature review
helps in determining whether framed hypothesis need to be accepted or rejected.
Moreover, in order to maintain quality and reliability of project outcomes, major focus
will be given on ethical consideration (Taplin and Winterton, 2019). For this process,
secondary data will gather from authenticate resources only, so that occurrence of any
ethical issue can be reduced.
Research evaluation
It has been concluded from this project that major issue that present fashion
industry faces, is related with changing in trends. This would arise challenges for
fashion industry, to update production with changes in trends. But it also proves
beneficial to develop effective strategies, for not only generating revenues by meeting
demands of customers, but also way to reduce old inventories and maintain
sustainability in business.
Recommendations
There are number of ways that Blue Inc. can adopt as their strategies to reduce
the negative impact of alterations within current fashion industry. Some of these
strategies are presented underneath:
 Adopting all the trends right on time: With the help of this, right amount of
modifications could easily be made by the organisation like Zara, Espirit, and so
on in order to gain competitive advantages within the global industry.
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 Develop the competitive strategies: This is one of the crucial strategies that an
organisation can adopt in order to reduce the negative effects of a change when
takes place in the fashion industry. With the help of this, it is said that appropriate
alterations within technical and technological aspects could easily be made. This
could be understood with a good example like, if a rival is utilising an online
marketing approach for promotional tool, then company could effectively
compare it with existing strategies. Through this, appropriate modifications within
the marketing approach can be done by the company based on the comparison.
 Understand the consumer perspective: As consumers are become more
fashion savvy today, therefore, it is recommended to management of Blue Inc., to
conduct regular survey for determining their demand and perspective. This would
help in offering right product at right time to them.
 Implement Go Green practices: As changing trends in fashion industry forces
retailers to offer more innovative design products, that reduce life-cycle of
existing one. Therefore, it increases wastages and put negative impact on
environment also. So, it is suggested to present firm to sale their products in
alternative or new emerging market. This would help in reducing cost of
inventories as well as generate high profitability also.
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References
Books and Journals
Brooks, A., 2019. Clothing poverty: The hidden world of fast fashion and second-hand
clothes. Zed Books Ltd.
Dubey, R. and et. al., 2019. Empirical investigation of data analytics capability and
organizational flexibility as complements to supply chain resilience. International
Journal of Production Research, pp.1-19.
Fares, N. and Lebbar, M., 2019. Optimization of Fast Fashion Retail Supply Chain
Processes: Overall Literature Review and Future Research Challenges.
In International Journal of Engineering Research in Africa (Vol. 45, pp. 205-
220). Trans Tech Publications Ltd.
Grilec, A., Petrak, S. and Naglic, M. M., 2019. Consumer Perception of 3D Body
Scanning While Online Shopping for Clothing. International Journal of
Humanities and Social Sciences. 13(7). pp.1025-1030.
Howard, P. M. A., Essuman, M. A. and Asare, T. O., 2019. Strategies for Determining
the Production Cost and Pricing of Garments in Ghana: A Study of the Fashion
Industries. International Journal of Business and Social Science.10(3).
Nayak, R., Akbari, M. and Far, S. M., 2019. Recent sustainable trends in Vietnam's
fashion supply chain. Journal of cleaner production. 225. pp.291-303.
Taplin, I. M. and Winterton, J. eds., 2019. Rethinking global production. Routledge.
Umam, R. and Sommanawat, K., 2019. Strategic flexibility, manufacturing flexibility, and
firm performance under the presence of an agile supply chain: A case of
strategic management in fashion industry. Polish Journal of Management
Studies. 19.
Yang, J., Tan, Y. and Xue, D., 2019. The impacts of globalization on city environments
in developing countries: A case study of 21 cities in Guangdong Province,
China. Journal of Cleaner Production. 240. p.118273.
Zmami, M. and Ben-Salha, O., 2019. Foreign Ownership and Labor Demand by Skill in
the Tunisian Manufacturing Industry: A Firm-Level Investigation. International
Journal of the Economics of Business, pp.1-25.
Online
Ten Trends for the fashion industry to watch in 2019. 2019. [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/ten-trends-for-the-
fashion-industry-to-watch-in-2019>.
The State of Fashion 2019: A year of Awakening. 2018. [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/the-state-of-fashion-
2019-a-year-of-awakening>.
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