ABSTRACT
Introduction While fashion retailer activity is essentially a domestic market-based activity, now for a significant minority of fashion retailers, operating within a foreign market is essential to their reputation and makes a significant contribution to their overall turnover. Foreign market expansion is not a new phenomenon, however. For example, Liberty opened their first store in Paris in 1890, while Burberry opened their first store in the French capital in 1909. However, it is true to say that in the past two decades, the international expansion of fashion retailers has been unprecedented, and has been fuelled by a variety of facilitating factors, the most notable of which has been the emergence of fashion retailer super-brands (examples of which include The Gap, Benetton and Gucci), whose image positioning makes them appealing to customers across the globe, regardless of their cultural background and ethnic origin. Consequently, fashion retailers are now identified as amongst the most important international companies.
