Big Data: The Reason Behind Zara’s Success
You may or may not have heard of Zara before; however, there’s a good chance you have. And there’s a reason why. Zara’s success as a fast-fashion brand is because Inditex — the overarching company that owns it — implements Big Data as a way to improve its designs and stores.
Zara is a Spanish fast-fashion company founded in 1975 by Amancio Ortega. Owned by the world’s largest apparel retailer, Zara is a brand name for people to remember. This is because, as previously mentioned, Zara utilizes Big Data to push it ahead of its competitors. But how?
Every Zara store worldwide, all 2,000+ of them, takes note of what designs are selling out fast, which ones are being returned, which ones people comment on while shopping; essentially anything that relates to which designs are being purchased or otherwise. And they are being reported back to the company’s headquarters in Spain. From there, the information is analyzed and used for future garment designs, and which styles each store should pull or restock. It is this use of Big Data that has helped Zara grow into the fast-fashion giant it is today.
It is because Zara utilizes Big Data that they can design, manufacture, and stock a new garment in 20 days or less. That is two or three times faster than any other competing fast-fashion brands. They take note of whether or not customers like this many zippers on a jacket, or this color combination, or this fabric and they use that information to pull back on unsuccessful styles and redesign new items and send them out as soon as possible. This all adds up to about “500 new designs a week and 20,000 per year.” [1]
The Cons.
However, let’s take a moment to consider what kind of effects the 500 new designs a week have on our environment. With approximately 3/4ths of stock consisting of new garments every week in each Zara store, then where do all of the prior garments go? Zara likes to boast that their customers frequent their stores about 17 times per year in comparison to 3–4 for competitors like H&M or the Gap, which, moreover, implies that their customers buy more clothing from them. How large are these people’s closets!?
This brings us to consider the quality of the garments and fashion waste. In most cases, with fast-fashion brands, their clothing is made quickly and cheaply in order to not only keep up with the everchanging trends, but to create the trends. However, this significantly lowers the quality and lifetime of the garment, which promotes and pushes the customer to throw out their clothing more often. The action of discarding one’s clothing then circles back into a cycle of needing to buy more cheap, trendy clothing.
Let’s just briefly touch on the effects this “cycle” has on our environment. The production of said cheap clothing often uses harmful chemicals which leach into our rivers and other water sources. The discarded clothing — textile waste — from the consumer ends up in landfills of developing countries which further pollute our land.
So, while in this real-life scenario, Big Data is immensely beneficial to the corporation and provides an increase in sales and customer consumption, Big Data may have ultimately led to further developing a system that degrades our environment. In the end, the pros no longer outweigh the cons when you take into account the inherent value our environment holds. Big Data is crucial in this example; however, it is not on the “good” side of the situation. Overall, Big Data has many benefits but just like many things in life if used incorrectly or abused, can cause undue harm.
Sources:
Hampton, Rachelle. “Zara’s New Sustainability Plan Reveals the Limits of Fast Fashion.” Slate Magazine, Slate, 18 July 2019, slate.com/human-interest/2019/07/can-zara-be-sustainable.html. [1]
Hanbury, Mary. “Nos Colamos Dentro De Una De Las Gigantescas Fábricas Donde Zara Crea Su Ropa Para Mostrarte Todos Sus Secretos.” Business Insider España, 4 Nov. 2018, https://www.businessinsider.es/como-hace-zara-ropa-fabrica-secretos-321017. [2]
Le, Ngan. “The Impact of Fast Fashion on the Environment — PSCI.” Princeton University, The Trustees of Princeton University, 20 July 2020, https://psci.princeton.edu/tips/2020/7/20/the-impact-of-fast-fashion-on-the-environment. [3]
Lutz, Ashley. “Why the Retail Industry Can’t Keep up with Zara.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 19 Nov. 2013, https://www.businessinsider.com/zaras-genius-business-model-and-retail-2013-11. [4]
Nathan, Adam. “Zara & Big Data: A 5-MINUTE Case Study.” Medium, Medium, 25 Oct. 2017, medium.com/@adamnathan/zara-big-data-a-5-minute-case-study-72dd9cebcbc6. [5]
Varma, Ankita. “Zara’s Secret to Success Lies in Big Data and an Agile Supply Chain.” The Straits Times, The Straits Times, 24 May 2017, www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/fashion/zaras-secret-to-success-lies-in-big-data-and-an-agile-supply-chain. [6]
Zhang, Jiarong. “Zara — a Successful Big Data Application.” Medium, Medium, 30 Oct. 2014, medium.com/@jiarongzhang/zara-a-successful-big-data-application-9ada5be0851d. [7]
