business organisation.
Introduction
In this report I will evaluate the distribution systems in delivering goods and services
for a selected business organisation.
H&M
H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB is a Swedish multinational clothing-retail company,
known for its fast-fashion clothing for men, women, teenagers and children.
Explain the meaning of distribution channels used by the selected retailer
Distribution channel refers to the network used to get a product from the
manufacturer or creator to the end user.A distribution channel refers to the type of
intermediary or linkage between producers and consumers. A one-channel
distribution network involves only the retailer between producer and consumer.
Direct distribution occurs when the producer directly supplies the product to the
buyer. The choice of distribution channel depends on a variety of factors, including
the type of product. While not all clothing retailers use direct distribution models,
H&M and its competitors in the low- and mid-range clothing market use this model to
maintain low costs and a fast time to market .
Manufacturers to retailers and then to customers:
Retailers, like H&M buy the product from the manufacturer and sell them directly to
the consumer. This channel works best for manufacturers that produce shopping
goods like, clothes, shoes etc.Since consumers need more time with these items
before they decide to purchase them, it is in the best interest of the manufacturer to
sell them to another user before it gets into the hand of the consumers.
Evaluate the distribution system of H&M
Unlike many industries, time-to-market is critical to retail clothiers, as trends and
fashions can change quickly. To minimize time-to-market, H&M employs a team of
in-house designers in 21 production offices worldwide that work to forecast trends
and find inspiration for clothing designs, from its headquarters in Stockholm, the
company directs a rapid-response manufacturing process to capitalize on design
trends immediately.H&M moves designs through production and into its retail sales
channel with a three week to six month lead time.
Then H&M, like many commercial clothing retailers, outsources the manufacture of
its designs to countries such as Cambodia and Bangladesh where labor is cheap.
H&M partners with 900 suppliers worldwide, most of which are located in Europe and
Asia.
Then H&M fashion transport their goods from the manufacturer to their warehouses
or stores by rail,road or air.Nowadays trends change really quickly, so if they have
too much stock and are not up to date, the store are forced to put it on sale to be
able to clear all the old fashion trends out to allow the new trends to be delivered.
H&M have three sales channels, stores, the Internet and catalogues for customers to
then purchase the products.H&M have their own online website, where customers
can purchase their products with a couple of clicks and H&M will deliver to their door
or customers can choose to collect from the nearest store.
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