Ortega, who was said to be a gadgeteer by inclination, bought his first computer in 1976. At the time, his operations encompassed just four factories and two stores but were already making it clear that what (other) buyers ordered from his factories was different from what his store data told him customers wanted

Eventually, Ortega’s quest to improve the manufacturing/retailing interface led him to integrate forward into retailing: the first Zara store was opened on an upmarket shopping street in La Coruña, in 1975. From the beginning, Zara positioned itself as a store selling “medium quality fashion clothing at affordable prices.” By the end of the 1970s,... See more

As he moved up through that company, he apparently developed a heightened awareness of how costs piled up through the apparel chain

Inditex (Industria de Diseño Textil) of Spain, the owner of Zara and five other apparel retailing chains, continued a trajectory of rapid, profitable growth by posting net income of € € 340 million on revenues of € € 3,250 million in its fiscal year 2001 (ending January 31, 2002). Inditex had had a heavily oversubscribed Initial Public Offering in... See more

H&M outsourced all its production, half of it to European suppliers, implying lead times that were good by industry standards but significantly longer than Zara’s. H&M had been quicker to internationalize, generating more than half its sales outside its home country by 1990, 10 years earlier than Inditex.

The Gap’s production was internationalized—more than 90% of it was outsourced from outside the United States—but its store operations were U.S.-centric.

By the end of the 1990s, supply chains that were still too long, market saturation, imbalances and inconsistencies across the company’s three store chains—Banana Republic, The Gap, and Old Navy—and the lack of a clear fashion positioning had started to take a toll even in the U.S. market.