ABSTRACT
As fast fashion chains such as Zara, H&M, Mango and Forever 21 have dramatically increased their global presence over the past decade, their influence in shaping consumer behavior as well as the traditional retail delivery calendar has been remarkable. As traditional retailers attempt to keep pace with new competitors that have achieved success by seemingly breaking all of the rules – through vertical integration, highly flexible manufacturing, small shipments and use of stock outs as a stimulus to encourage customer purchases – academic literature is similarly catching up with the industry’s innovative supply chain practices. This purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of some of the selected and most relevant research in the area of supply chain management in the fast fashion retail sector. Because of rapid changes in technology and the nature of the retailing industry itself, only articles from the previous ten years were included. A review of literature reveals that much of the research that has been published to date is still exploratory in nature, and the opportunity exists for many additional research questions to be addressed as the industry matures.
