Zara's Expansion Strategies in Asian Market

MANAGING ACROSS
BORDERS

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In the era of globalisation, fashion brands have crossed borders and have reached to those
countries that were understood to be as the third world (Lynn Childs and Jin, 2014). This
report signifies the approaches that global fashion brand Zara have used for itself so as to
successfully set up their businesses in these regions. Various aspects related to Zara business
have been highlight along with its expansion process in Asian region specifically. The
strategies that Zara have used over the years for expansion have been identified and
illustrated in this report. The way in which these strategies have helped Zara in crossing
borders and making their marks have been showcased. In the last section of the report the
challenges and problems that Zara have faced in their expansion process have been described.
Content

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s
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................3
Zara expansion in Asian market............................................................................................................4
Internationalisation approaches.............................................................................................................5
Expansion process.................................................................................................................................6
Expansion strategies used by Zara.........................................................................................................7
Business problems and challenges that Zara is facing...........................................................................9
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES....................................................................................................................................10
APPENDIX.........................................................................................................................................12
INTRODUCTION
Today fashion industry is not only restricted to some European or American markets rather
the companies have crossed border to reach to new destinations so as to increase their market
base (Bhardwaj, Eickman and Runyan, 2011). This has helped the firms to manage their high
profit margins as well as ensure that growth rate. Globalisation has empowered firms to

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manage their business across the global horizon. With the use of online business they have
been able to find pathway to reach to international borders. The expansion process has been
done based on various dynamics of the marketplace and the environment that is present in the
organisation. As the issues in the market have increased considerably hence managing
operations has become difficult in spite of their several efforts.
Zara has been known for implementing the technologies and strategies for improving their
business standards. Zara is one of fashion giants that is present in various parts of the world
and has taken several steps to ensure high level of growth (Gaur, Kumar and Sarathy, 2011).
With the help of their parent firm Inditex they have successful in meeting the demands of
their global customers. In order to strengthen their position in the market, they have used
many strategies from time to time. With the big brand name it has along with the strategies
they have made for themselves, they have been able to reach to new regions like Asia. China
and Indian subcontinent has become one of the major regions of their focus. They have
utilised several types of strategies so as to face the challenges which is increasing day by day
in numbers. Strategies have also been shaped in such a manner that they successfully
implemented all their expansion plans (Mo, 2015). All the departments have played a major
role in their management of strategies.
The story of Zara’s stretch to Asian market has started with fact that the type of products that
Zara produces does not only restricted to European and American market. Rather there is a
very huge amount of population that is living in the Asia who are the potential markets for
this European industry giant (Mohr and Batsakis, 2014). For meeting the Asian demands they
have opened their business in many parts of the Asia. Since a whole lot of fashion companies
have entered into this region with a huge amount of resources and capability to change the
business scenario. This has increased the tension in terms of market share and many
challenges for Zara have occurred. Having so many operational units in this region has
further made the problem bigger.
This report signifies the approaches that has used by Zara in their process of expansion. It
also presents the strategies they have used for the business to expand in Asian region along
with the challenges that are facing in this part.