I was really impressed with what was written. You seem to have a lot of knowledge of how things work in zara. The story is that sometimes when i walk into zara, I find some items that are really similar to the high end brands in the market which confuses me a little on whether zara designs or trends? What I mean is, does Zara design or does it copy what has been created by the high end fashion designers? If it does copy, then it must need stylists or trendors to do this job, so where can I find such trendors?

link 1:
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/08/zara/index_01.htm

1) “Take a few to the market” is known as “Just In Time”. Yes, the transportation cost may be higher (they aren’t), but you must consider the fact that their storage costs are 0. They pull rather than push. There is no inventory to manage. You really need to get a copy of Lean Thinking by Womack et al and study what lean means.

Your “very high transportation cost” is based on the false assumption that they are sending smaller batches and therefore emptier trucks (and possibly more often). Examine your premises. Let’s say a truckload is 100 units, and the average push operation sends a truckload of one style, another truckload of another style, etc., up to 5 styles., and those each take 5 weeks to sell (20 units/week of each style). You could say that they are efficient from a transportation point of view. But that’s 5 weeks + manufacturing time + storage at the manufacturing point + storage time of raw materials from the time they paid for the materials and labor to the time they get paid by a customer. Zara sends 20 units of 5 styles in one truck and get paid in a week. The trucks are just as full. They ship more often, but 1 truck once per week requires exactly the same amount of fuel and labor as 5 trucks every 5 weeks. And not only does Zara eliminate storage, but their sell-through is higher. How?

2) Artificial scarcity is the point of Zara’s strategy! Look at Kathleen’s post on the subject: both The Economist and Paco Underhill (quoted in her post) understand that this lets Zara extract the full retail value of each garment. Their competitors actually ship clothing with the discount tags attached. That 5 truckloads every 5 weeks doesn’t look very efficient now, does it?

3) Zara is renowned for their wide variety. Where in the world did you get the idea that they provide less variety? That variety plays perfectly with the lean development process and the short turnaround/constant restocking. You never have to ship half-empty trucks if you have a wide variety of items that are sold before they ever ship.

If you want to study someone in need of improvement, try The Gap. They think that changing the color of their floors is going to create sales and profits. How could you top improving Zara? Are you going to suggest improvements to Toyota’s quality control system next?

If you want a relevant article, read the post I linked above, Lean Thinking, Paco Underhill’s two books (links in the right sidebar —>), subscribe to this blog and EvolvingExcellence, and search through The Economist for references to Zara. I think you’ll find that your chosen research subject is going to prove fruitless.