RETAIL BUYING AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Retail Buying and Supply Chain Management

Background

According to Greasley, the Supply chain consists of series of activities that moves material from suppliers, through operations and eventually delivers them to customers. Each product or service will have its own supply chain, which may involve many organizations in processing, transportation, warehousing and retail. The structure of a supply chain consists of upstream suppliers and downstream suppliers. (Clinton 2004 45)

Fig 1: Supply Chain and Management

Chain Management (SCM)

The management of the supply chain (SCM for short in English, Supply Chain Management), is emerging as the combination of technology and best business practices worldwide. Companies have improved their internal operations and are now working to achieve greater savings and benefits by improving processes and information exchanges that occur between business partners. (Clinton 2009 22)

Production in the textile sector has not varied significantly over the past five years. By contrast, imports have shown a slight increase and the number of employees in this sector. The number of companies in this sector has hardly changed.

Fig 2: Marketing Management

In this research we take into account the supply chain and management practices of two retail businesses dealing in fashion. We analyse their current strategies and practices, their strengths and weaknesses. Also the study aims to give recommendations for effective handling of supply chain and management.

Mango company profile

Mango is a prestigious multinational company dedicated to international design, manufacture and marketing of clothing and accessories for women. The brand already over 2000 shops stores in 103 countries (Den 2008 76)

Mango has been the leading brand of Spanish fashion to start selling online. It created its business website in 2005 and, five years later, in 2000 the brand was made available to users of its first online store. Mango currently markets the full range of products in member states of the European Union and the United States, Canada, China, Japan, Russia and Turkey.

Mango sees international expansion as the future of their business. Last year, 78% of its turnover came from outside Spain. In this sense, the chain has been reported that in the medium term, the Spanish sales network will contribute to the total sales with only 5% of the total profit (Donelan 2008 7)

The fashion chain has announced that it will open two additional logistics centers. One will be located in the U.S. and will supply the entire American continent. The other will be located in China, as sales in the region account for 21% of the total turnover of the firm. The other major markets in Asia are Japan, Korea and Singapore. Also 43% of suppliers in the chain are in this continent. Mango has two stores in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. (Clinton 2009 29).

Logistics System

The SLM (Mango LOGISTICS SYSTEM) is based on speed, information and technology. Its aim is to ensure that each point of sale (over 950 stores worldwide by the end of 2006) has, at any time, the balance that needs to comply with the speed of rotation and sales forecasts. They guarantee the continuous renewal of the goods, and production at ...