Zara: IT for Fast FashionZara is one of the oldest and largest fashion brands of Inditex, one of the largest distribution groups in the world. It is a Spanish clothing and accessories retailer founded in 1975 by Amanico Ortega. Jose Maria Castellano Rios joined Zara in 1985 as IT manager and in 1997 became CEO of Inditex. Ortega and Castellano shared many corporate beliefs about the company that led Zara to become one of the largest clothing retailers in the world today. Zara still lives by a simple idea originated by Ortega, according to which customer demand is the crux of the business. The idea is to connect customer demand to production and connect production to distribution. Castellano together with Ortega brought computerization to Zadar. Along with the need for information technology, Ortega and Castellano also shared other beliefs that Zara must be quick in responding to its customers' fashion requests and that employees' judgment in quick decision making will be an advantage for Zara's business. Of the 1,558 stores that Inditex operated in 45 countries in 2003, the Zara chain had 550 stores averaging one store opening per day worldwide. Today, Zara has a huge international presence, with France being its largest international market. Its target market is young, fashion-conscious city dwellers. It offers a wide range of clothing and accessories choices to three different segments of its target market: the largest is women which accounts for 60% of sales and the other two are men and the rapidly growing children's segment. Multinational apparel retailers such as H&M, Gap and Benetton are its competitive rivals. With this in mind, Zara's continued success in the ever-……paper medium……because its Distribution Centers are not set up to handle and ship small orders. Additionally, Zara understands that in-store returns of 5% are a very small number compared to returns of 50% - 60% in the retail mail order industry. It has a website – www.zara.com – but it is only a digital showcase. Zara is extremely focused on its core belief in fashion and therefore is constantly looking for innovation in its products by introducing something completely new or making changes to existing products at very short notice throughout the year. Thanks to this solid commitment to its goals, Zara does not have to predict its sales; whether it's in six months or a month. This helps save a huge amount of production costs. The IT architecture is aligned with their operational processes. All these factors give Zara an edge over its competitors.