THE RETAIL MARKETING

The Retail Marketing

[Date of Submission]

Introduction3

Discussion3

The Retail Mix of Zara4

The Merchandise Range and Assortment4

The Marketing Communications6

The Design and Store Layout7

The Visual Merchandising8

The Facilitating Services and Customer Services8

The Store Formats and Locations9

The Pricing Strategy and Tactics10

The Future Trends11

The Environment11

The Markets11

The Competition12

Conclusion13

The Retail Marketing

Introduction

In Western Europe, there are three thousand seven hundred and ninety seven counts of non-European retailers with operations and European retailers in non-domestic markets, whereas, European retail operations are hosted by one hundred and fourteen countries. During the era of 1990s, one thousand three hundred and thirty five non-domestic retail operations entered into European markets. Means of establishing a foothold in Europe and as the first port of call are the factors why Non-European retailers chose to move into the region of the United Kingdom.

Within Europe, there is a general trend of incremental expansion, whereby retailers move into a neighbour of the host market after they have learned from their experiences of moving into a relatively proximate market. Operations have been started to become internationalised by less developed retail markets that have been characterised as host markets currently. The much discussed and notable fashion chains, like, Mango and Zara originated from Spain, which are now truly successfully exporting retail format and has seen an influx of foreign retailers.

In this research report, we will discuss Zara, which is a non-domestic retailer in the United Kingdom. Each element of the retail mix of Zara is outlined along with its viable basis for sustainable advantage. In the end, we will discuss the challenges faced by Zara in continuing its international growth.

Discussion

Zara - The Non-Domestic Retailer in the United Kingdom

A wide range of clothing for children, young adults, women and men is offered by Zara, which is a fashion retailer. Zara has its position in the middle of the highly competitive fashion market, due to its continuous following to the changing fashion trend and its offers of a wide range of clothing in accordance to the needs of the market. Zara continuous to be competitive, as its approach to fashion is unique and it continuously respond to the current changing trends (Ghemawat & Et.al, 2003, pp. 1). Zara, which has currently become one of the key players in the fashion industry, had its first location in Spain, which opened in the year of 1975. The great success and potential of Zara is exhibited by its expansion of business into a different part of the world in countries, like, Canada, Japan and Mexico.

The Retail Mix of Zara

In order to draw masses of fashion conscious repeat customers, in prime locations, in sophisticated stores for relatively low prices, fresh assortments of cosmetics and toiletries and designer-style accessories and garments are offered by Zara (Torun, 2007, pp. 6). For the upstream operations, by building up significant forward order books, in compare to achieve manufacturing efficiencies, to be a very quick fashion follower, the use of backward vertical integration is emphasized by Zara, despite its tapered integration into manufacturing. The upstream policies were helped to reinforce by the store operations ...