Эффекты развития индустрии fast fashion в мировой экономике

Аннотация

The fast fashion industry has been developing dynamically in the last decades. Business models were constantly changing there to increase efficiency and meet customer expectations. However, recent events related to coronavirus as well as the increasing importance of digitalization and sustainability issues forced companies to look for new ways to conduct their businesses. The purpose of this paper is to identify the key factors of fast fashion companies development. The study empirically examines three groups of factors: fast fashion strategy related, sustainable development-related and operational metrics. It specifically focuses on how fast fashion strategy and business model are implementing by fast fashion retailers who apply global strategy and have control over design, production and distribution stages over their supply chain. Applying data from 20 companies, we obtain results revealing that implementing fast fashion strategic elements- Quick response and Dynamic assortment - positively affect the overall performance of fast fashion retailers. At the same time, large players tend to be more successful in this industry than their smaller competitors. However, the direct impact of sustainable development, including environmental, social and governance aspects, was not proved in the scope of this research as variables were insignificant in most cases. It can be explained by the delayed effect of green investment. Considering the new forms of large high tech stores operating as a distribution hub- a concept which got a lot of attention during a pandemic- it was not proved as well. We can see this as a new upcoming trend that has just begun to be implemented by the market leaders.