My cousin went to Finland last few weeks for work purpose and...I asked her to buy ZARA kids for Sophie and for me too of course. I know many aware that some international brand sold in our country is quite expensive rather than in Europe. You name it, Zara, Mango, Mothercare, Topshop, DP, GAP or Miss Selfridge is pretty cheap in Europe.
I saw this one kids shirt at Zara Midvalley last week. Price? RM40-50 (I totally forgot the exact price) and by coincidence my cousin bought the same shirt for Sophie for 1.95 Finland Euro. Convert to RM? nahhh RM8.50 only! (1.95 euro x 4.36 RM)..Why ohhh why??
Mostly for Sophie. Mine only this shirt! hahahaha thanks cuzzy thanks
This is for 9.95 Euro. Convert to our ringgit = RM43.38
I do not know how much they sell this shirt in Malaysia. I bet it must be more than hundred ringgit
The most disturbing is this printed palazzo pants. I bought this at Zara KLCC for RM79.90
But this baby is sold in UK for 7.99 BG. Again, convert to RM is RM41.38 (7.99 x 5.18RM)
>_<
and readers..wanna read more? I just want to share the Zara history and origin. I took this info from wikepedia
........................................................................................................
It is claimed that Zara needs just two weeks
[2]
to develop a new product and get it to stores, compared to the
six-month industry average, and launches around 10,000 new designs each
year. Zara has resisted the industry-wide trend towards transferring
fast fashion
production to low-cost countries. Perhaps its most unusual strategy was
its policy of zero advertising; the company preferred to invest a
percentage of revenues in opening new stores instead. This has increased
the idea of Zara as a "fashion imitator" company and low cost products.
Lack of advertisement is also in contrast to direct competitors such as
Uniqlo and
United Colors of Benetton.
and devastating retailer in the
world." Zara has also been described as a "Spanish success story" by
CNN.
[3]
Origins and history
Amancio Ortega opened the first Zara store in 1975 in a central street in downtown A Coruña, Galicia, Spain.
[4] Ortega named his store
Zorba after watching the classic film
Zorba the Greek,
but apparently there was a bar that was called the same, Zorba, two
blocks away, and the owner of the bar came and said, "this is going to
confuse things to have two Zorbas." They had already made the molds for
the letters in the sign, so they just rearranged them to see what they
could find, and they found
Zara.
[5]
The first store featured low-priced lookalike products of popular,
higher-end clothing fashions. The store proved to be a success, and
Ortega began opening more Zara stores throughout Spain. During the
1980s, Ortega started changing the design, manufacturing, and
distribution process to reduce lead times and react to new trends in a
quicker way, in what he called "instant fashions". The company based its
improvements in the use of information technologies and using groups of
designers instead of individuals.
[6]
In 1980, the company started its international expansion through
Porto, Portugal. In 1989 it entered the United States and in 1990 France.
This international expansion was increased in the 1990s, with Mexico
(1992), Greece (1994), Belgium and Sweden (1994), etc. until reaching
its current presence in over 73 countries.
Zara stores are company-owned, except where local legislation forbids foreigner-owned businesses; In those cases, Zara
franchises the stores.
Products
As of 2007, Zara stores have men's clothing and women's clothing,
each of these subdivided in Lower Garment, Upper Garment, Shoes,
Cosmetics and Complements, as well as children's clothing (Zara Kids).
Currently their sizing on women's clothing goes to a US size 12 or a UK
size 14 .
[7
Manufacturing and distribution
The men's department of a typical Zara store. Almere, The Netherlands
Zara clothing made in Portugal
Zara is a vertically integrated retailer. Unlike similar apparel
retailers, Zara controls most of the steps on the supply-chain,
designing, manufacturing, and distributing its products.
[8] Zara set up its own factory in La Coruña (a city known for its textile industry) in 1980, and upgraded to reverse
milk-run-type
production and distribution facilities in 1990. This approach, designed
by Toyota Motor Corp., was called the just-in-time (JIT) system. It
enabled the company to establish a business model that allows
self-containment throughout the stages of materials, manufacture,
product completion and distribution to stores worldwide within just a
few days.
[9]
Regarding the design strategy, an article in
Businessworld magazine
[10]
describes it as follows: "Zara was a fashion imitator. It focused its
attention on understanding the fashion items that its customers wanted
and then delivering them, rather than on promoting predicted season's
trends via fashion shows and similar channels of influence, which the
fashion industry traditionally used.
Zara on
Briggate,
Leeds after refurbishment. It now includes the new logo and store layout
50% of the products Zara sells are manufactured in Spain, 26% in the
rest of Europe, and 24% in Asian and African countries and the rest of
the world.
[11]
So while some competitors outsource all production to Asia, Zara makes
its most fashionable items—half of all its merchandise—at a dozen
company-owned factories in Spain and
Portugal, particularly in
Galicia and northern
Portugal
where labour is somewhat cheaper than in most of Western Europe.
Clothes with a longer shelf life, such as basic T-shirts, are outsourced
to low-cost suppliers, mainly in Asia and
Turkey.
[12]
Zara can offer considerably more products than similar companies. It
produces about 11,000 distinct items annually compared with 2,000 to
4,000 items for its key competitors. The company can design a new
product and have finished goods in its stores in four to five weeks; it
can modify existing items in as little as two weeks. Shortening the
product life cycle means greater success in meeting consumer
preferences.
[13]
If a design doesn't sell well within a week, it is withdrawn from
shops, further orders are canceled and a new design is pursued. Zara
relies on sophisticated information technology, such as PDAs with
wireless transmission capabilities, in the hands of store managers, to
monitor customers' fickle fashion changes.
[14]
Zara has a range of basic designs that are carried over from year to
year, but some fashion forward designs can stay on the shelves less than
four weeks, which encourages Zara fans to make repeat visits. An
average high-street store in Spain expects customers to visit three
times a year. That goes up to 17 times for Zara.
[15]
On September 6, 2010,
Financial Times reported that
Inditex
launched the first online boutique for its best-selling brand Zara. The
website will begin in Spain, the UK, Portugal, Italy, Germany and
France—six countries that are among the most important of the company's
76 markets. When asked about the company's late arrival to internet
retailing,
Pablo Isla,
chief executive, said they have been waiting for online demand to build
before launching into cyberspace. All items on sale at its Zara outlets
would be available online and at the same prices. Customers can choose
from the usual range of paying methods and opt either for a free store
pick-up or paid-for postal delivery. The online return and exchange
policy is identical to the store system, with shoppers given 30 days to
change their minds. Queries will be handled by
customer service operators or via e-mail or chat messaging. Inditex said that
iPhone and
iPad applications that allowed purchasing would soon be available.
[16]
On November 4, 2010, Zara Online extended the service to five more
countries: Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
[17] Online stores will begin operating in the
United States and
South Korea in 2011.
[18]
The simple website allows shoppers to filter a search for garments by;
type of garment, colours, sizes, prices, reference number, etc.
Customers can view products in precise detail from different angles and
use a SuperZoom feature to get an exceptional close-up look at the
details of each item.
[17]
In 2011, Zara entered the
Australian market with a three story, 1400sqm store in the
Westfield Sydney complex opened on April 21, 2011 and a second three story 1800sqm store at
Bourke Street Mall Melbourne which opened on 15 June 2011.
[19][20][21] Zara will open its third Australian store in November 2011 at
Burnside Village
Shopping Centre in Adelaide, South Australia. It will be Australia's
largest at 2,300sqm, and modelled on the design of their Fifth Avenue,
New York store.
[22]
Thanks fo reading!
.Love.
