Fast Fashion: A Successful Business Model Forced to Transform

Abstract

Fast fashion has been the most successful business model in the fashion sector since the end of the twentieth century. The main fast fashion companies have not only become the largest apparel retailers in the world, but they have also decisively influenced the evolution of fashion consumption and the other fashion sectors, including luxury brands. This chapter presents the emergence of fast fashion as a response to strong international competition in the clothing market, driven by the progressive reduction of tariffs and import quotas, and changes in consumption patterns. The study also examines the characteristics and the competitive strategies of this business model, and it explores the evolution of Inditex, the company that has developed fast fashion the earliest and most profoundly and has constituted a benchmark for the sector as a whole. Finally, the high environmental and social cost of fast fashion and its adaptation to the digital economy are analyzed.