The best example of someone who is able to combine a concept of a clothing brand with a trading strategy of a clothing line very successfully so far will be ZARA clothing. Looking at Zara’s business strategy and the number of clothing lines they have under their umbrella, and how fast and quickly they shift product aesthetic, you can immediately tell ZARA is all about leading the pack into the Trend by switching it up quickly as the trend evolves.
Amancio Ortega who started as a retailer selling his own branded product by coping high-end designers and making it available for the mass at an affordable pricing makes Zara a household name that today surpasses companies like Ralph Lauren and Gucci by 10 fold in gross sales.
Remember we are saying someone with a branding knowledge or understanding combined with clothing line approach not someone who does some drop ship or buy and sell mediocre product on Amazon.com or wish. We are not discussing companies that sells clothing today and the cosmetic product tomorrow. This type of business are called flippers and they have no type of structure, now let’s get back to Zara.
Zara has a very clear understanding on how to read product data to determine what type of clothing and what region need to be sold and how to quickly get it there. They have a very elaborated and systematic approach that continues to push the envelope.
ZARA currently owns over 100’s of clothing labels and 2000+ stores globally outranked brands like Ralph Lauren’s growth sales by 10-20x in the past two decades. This is to show you the possibility of what a successful combination of a clothing brand approach combined with a clothing line approach can be, and how it can turn into a global phenomenon.
Starting to learn and implement this approach can be extraordinary if done right. But if your approach is to only do and follow the strategy of clothing lines, remember the harsh truth, most do not ever make it to the mainstream. 95% of the time you normally see them trading on platforms like Amazon, eBay, And etc…without or with bare minimum brand recognition.
The main reason usually happens to be the fact that these individuals do not have the ability to move quickly with new products they desire to sell and to compete cost-effectively.
To give you an example, if you currently sell a T-shirt and you notice denim is really hot but you don’t have a factory that does denim then as a startup to develop and build a relationship with a denim
factory takes a long time sometimes 6-12 month before you have a product on hand which by then the trend has came and gone.
Initially even if the factory takes you after you invest time and money developing this relationship, it doesn’t mean you will become their priority unless you are constantly developing denim month after monty.
You also don’t have a lot of capital and you are looking to do low MOQ to market test the product but even if the factory is willing to do low MOQ remember they will need more time then their normal lead time since it is like doing you a favor.
Their first priority will always be their bigger and better companies. Don’t take this personal it is business since they have overhead and stuff to worry about then your 100-300 units. The reason Zara, H&M and other like them have achieved this is because of their investments of millions and billions in massive vertical integration facilities across the world and staff.
By the time you have your concept out on the market and done testing, that train has long gone and a new trend has come setting you back every time months that turn into years. So if you evaluate closely the options are the following:
- Contacting a factory and establishing a Relationship Every time you want to add a new product which is out of the question
- If you buy it from a distributor or wholesaler who has acquired it from the factory at a markup. It kills your margin, an your competitor will out price you
- If you want to start a vertically integrated factory like zara, make sure you have millions to burn as it does not guarantee your success
Brands like Zara have done this very well by investing Hundreds of millions of dollars to set up their own factory and control the entire production process internally so they can move in any way they see fit. We’ve created AVmade to help you solve all these major issue, an ever growing ecosystem of best serve entrepreneurs with elite factories coming together with a mission to level the playing field by freeing entrepreneurs and business savvy individuals who don’t have that type of capital or resource but have the smarts given the opportunity to excel but it will take a little time before we can promise you the sky and the sun as we are extremely selective about the quality of the factories we partner with. See How AVmade works and start getting ahead.
CONCLUSION
It is very important for entrepreneurs to initially ask themselves with honesty the type of skill sets they acquired and the type of business they want to build based on decisions and directions that are best suited for them. Sometimes individuals live in the bubble thinking they are “type A” when they are actually “type B” this lack of clarity is the biggest downfall an entrepreneur can have.
Example. if someone thinks he / she is highly creative and artistic but in reality what they are is
● Savvy : Individuals with a great eye for identifying new market trends
● Trendsetter : Knowing how to make an outfit looks better than most
One last time do not confuse knocking off versus copying. Do not ever knock off other designers as this is not a good way of creating something that will last long and Karma will eventually get you. So be honest with yourself, understand what it is that you are great at, learn to develop and improve your skill so you can achieve great success.
