Student Names:Marian Flavin C09683194 Clare ODonnell C06485880Aisling Owens C10381113Marina Pinto D13126329

Course:PG Dip Fashion Buying & Management

Module:International Fashion Retailing

Lecturer:Amanda Ratcliffe

Assignment:CA2 Group Assignment

Date:December 9, 2014

We declare that the work contained in this submission is our own work, and has not been taken from the work of others, save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of this submission.Signed: ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

IntroductionThis report will evaluate the American brand, Urban Outfitters. It will develop a comprehensive case history on the company, taking a look at its early beginnings in Philadelphia, before its move to Europe in the late 1990s. The report will then assess the challenges faced in the international marketplace, focusing on supply chain and branding. It will then analyse its mode of entry to new markets, and investigate its successes, as well as any failures or withdrawals.

Overview of the CompanyReuters refer to Urban Outfitters, Inc. as the parent company of five brands including Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, Terrain and BHLDN. Its headquarters are located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the U.S.Urban Outfitters was founded in 1970 by college roommates Richard Hayne and Scott Belair, opening a Free People store in Philadelphia, which offered inexpensive second-hand clothing, Indian fabrics, scented candles, T-shirts, drug paraphernalia, and ethnic jewelry, in 400 square feet decorated with packing crates and beat-up furniture. Their initial target market was their peers, college and graduate students who wanted inexpensive clothes and home wares for dorm rooms and apartments. Hayne told the New York Times in 1994, I was that market ... everyone associated with that store was that market. In 1976, the stores name was changed to Urban Outfitters, incorporated and publicly traded (NASDAQ: URBN). Four years later, sales were averaging $3 million and a second store was opened in Cambridge, Massachusetts, continuing to appeal to its target market of college students. By the mid-1990s, several new stores were established, following the original concept and located in areas densely populated by college students. (International Directory of Company Histories, 1996)Today, Urban Outfitters operates internationally, with over 190 stores throughout the US and Canada, 45 stores throughout Europe and one in Hong Kong. (Urban Outfitters store locator) Their own brand, as well as their many in-house brands, continues to appeal to the student/young professional hipster market of 18-30 year olds.First International MoveBy the mid-1990s, Urban Outfitters had successfully and rapidly expanded throughout the US and Canada, taking care to stay true to its original market by establishing stores in cities with large youth populations, such as Boston, New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco.In 1998, the brand made the leap across the Atlantic and the first European store was opened in London, United Kingdom. A large volume of extensive research was carried out in advance of their move to the UK. Chairman Richard Hayne commented at the time that the brand felt that the young market was becoming increasingly international in scope. Attributing the internationalisation to movies, MTV, CNN, Hayne stated that, while there are regional differences, these differences are becoming less and less. The company hired a British manager to travel to the US to check out the stores and head office, as well as get a feel for the merchandising and company culture. British buyers were then hired to travel to Philadelphia to meet the US buying team and accompany them on buying trips, and in turn, the American staff, including Hayne, attended trade shows in London to see what was the cutting edge of London fashion. (Von Bergen, 1998)London was chosen as the first intercontinental venture because Hayne felt that the European markets similar culture and business practices to Americas made for a simpler transition than if they had entered the Asian market. It had also been noted that the companys American stores received a lot of European customers, which was evidence of the hype building up about the brand across the Atlantic.There was certainly a gap in the market for Urban Outfitters counterculture cool in London, as illustrated by Walker (2012): Britain had led the way with shops such as Biba and Bazaar in the sixties, but there was no trace of that ingenuity or excitement left on the high street [Urban Outfitters] makes no bones about the fact that it exists for the cool kids: youll find none of the basics that other shops rely on to bulk up sales when more trend-led pieces fail.The first store opened on Kensington High Street in June 1998, off the beaten track of the Oxford Street district, the usual choice for international retailers. Kensington is home to the Heatherley School of Fine Art and the Royal College of Art (The Guide to Kensington and Chelsea: Schools, Colleges and Universities), ensuring that Urban Outfitters intended to continue to appeal to their target market of students, especially arty bohemian types, in Europe. At the time, it was reported that Hayne believed the Kensington store opening to be the beginning of a 30-store expansion across Europe, with six or seven of those stores in the United Kingdom. (Von Bergen, 1998)

Timeline of Moves1998 The first European store was established in the United Kingdom on Londons Kensington High Street.2001 The first Irish store opened in Dublins Temple Bar.2004 A store was opened in Londons Covent Garden.2005 Stores were established in Birmingham and Belfast.2007 A second Irish store opened in Dundrum Town Centre in South Dublin.2008 Stores appeared in Bristol, Leeds and Liverpool. The first continental European store opened in Hamburg in Germany.2009 Scotlands Edinburgh and Glasgow each welcomed new stores. The first Belgian store was opened in Antwerp. 2010 More UK stores sprung up in Bath, Brighton, Cardiff, and Londons Spitalfields.2011 A store was opened in the brand new Westfield Shopping Centre in Londons Stratford. A second Belgian store was opened in Brussels and a second German store was opened in Frankfurt.2012 A year of major expansion for the brand. A further nine UK stores were established in Guildford, Kent, Londons Marble Arch, Londons White City, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield, Southampton and York. The first Danish store was opened in Copenhagen, the first Swedish store was opened in Stockholm, and three new German stores were opened, two in Berlin and one in Nuremberg.2013 The mass expansion continued throughout the UK and Europe. Two more stores opened in London, a flagship store complete with a European head office on Oxford Street, and a store in Camden, as well as a new store in Nottingham. Another German store was established in Cologne. The first Dutch store opened in Amsterdam, and the French got their first taste of the brand as a pop-up shop opened in Pariss Galeries Lafayettes department store.2014 Urban Outfitters expanded into the Asian market with a store in Hong Kong. As well as this, another UK store opened in Leicester. There was another French opening in Pariss Le BHV Marais department store, two more German stores were established in Munich and Stuttgart, and the first Spanish store opened in Barcelona.2015 It was reported in 2011 that Urban Outfitters expected to have tripled its store count in Europe by 2015 the group hopes to build a network of 15 stores in Germany, to have entered the French market and to be ready to enter Spain and Italy (Goyot, 2011). The company had 20 stores in operation in Europe in 2011. Presently, now in the last quarter of the fiscal year 2015, Urban Outfitters operates 45 European stores. It has not quite achieved its intention of tripling its European presence, and is seven stores away from its goal of 15 in Germany, but has achieved its aim of entering the Spanish market.

Rate of ExpansionUpon opening its first European store in London, Urban Outfitters remained still for three years before trying out the Irish market and opening a store in Dublin. The company spent another seven years expanding throughout the UK and Ireland before moving to another market; the German one. After this, it may be said that the company began to rapidly spread through Europe. Just five years after first opening in Germany, the company had established stores in Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and France.

E-CommerceUrban Outfitters are an omni-channel retailer, offering a customer experience through the medium of retail stores, a catalogue, and a website (both online and mobile). Urban Outfitters products are available online, internationally, as of 2013 (Multivu, 2013), which allows the company to scope out potential markets by analysing the popularity of their online store in various countries.

Challenge of the International Market Supply Chain IssuesUrban Outfitters source their merchandise from various suppliers both in the United States and globally. We receive a substantial portion of our apparel and other merchandise from foreign stores, both purchased directly from foreign markets and indirectly through domestic vendors with foreign sources. The company have acknowledged that the large number of international suppliers from whom they buy could adversely affect business. However, the company believes they tackle this potential issue by maintaining a large volume of suppliers. By having each supplier accounting for no more than 10% of total merchandise purchased, problems of excess inventory or stock-outs are avoided. The company also believe that buying from several suppliers ensure that the loss of any suppliers would not have a material effect on the business. However, considering the current rate at which the brand is expanding internationally, this puts added pressure on the buying teams to keep on top of supply and demand.As well as the four distribution and fulfilment centres the company owns and leases in the US to serve the North American stores as well as the international online store, Urban Outfitters also lease a 98,000 square foot distribution centre and a 142,000 square foot fulfilment centre in Rushden in the UK. This serves the entire European store base and direct-to-consumer online service. (URBN Annual Review, 2014) While this works efficiently at the moment, if Urban Outfitters continues to expand at the current rate, it is likely that the companys distribution facilities will need to be increased to adequately support growth, especially now that there is a store operating in Hong Kong.

BrandingUrban Outfitters has long been associated with a youth demographic, typically bohemian, cosmopolitan, fashion-conscious types. It may even be argued that the retailer played a part in birthing the hipster, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a person who follows the latest trends and fashions, especially those regarded as being outside the cultural mainstream.Reports have indicated that as of 2013, the average annual revenue per store in the US is 15% less than in their European stores (Trefis, 2014). Arguably, reverence for the brand in the US has declined in recent years. This may be attributed to its successful marketing of hipster clothing to the masses (McDuling, 2014), and also to the rise of fast-fashion rivals such as Forever 21, Zara and H&M, who stay atop of trends and retail them for much more wallet-friendly prices (Peterson, 2014). Urban Outfitters has also found itself at the centre of numerous controversies (The Week, 2014), which may have also contributed to its popularity decline, along with its uncertainty regarding its ever-changing image concept. Urban Outfitters completely rebrands itself every six months (as a minimum). Everything is refreshed, from logo, to bags, to point of sale, to the store environment. (Reed, 2014) It might be boldly stated that Urban Outfitters is struggling to keep up with the rise of fast-fashion competitors springing up around them.However, brand respect in Europe remains quite steady. It may be said that its status as a relatively new brand to the region deem it a novelty. Its swift growth in Germany could arguably be a reflection of the strong hipster scene there (Kingsley, 2012).Urban Outfitters aims to establish itself as an edgy brand in new markets by acquiring unusual properties and redesigning them. One such example is the Camden store in London, located in a former cinema (Ryan, 2013). It could be strongly argued that this method of expansion, rather than franchising or simply leasing a predesigned retail space in a shopping centre, generates interest in the retailer and creates hype in a new market. The Transfer of CompetenceUrbans focal strategy is to provide a unified and friendly store environment that establishes an emotional bond with the customer. It concentrates on utilizing an information system to enhance customer service, order entry and allocations, production planning and inventory management. Also Urban aims to attract, train and retain talented, highly motivated store managers, visual managers, buyers and other key employees for the success of their stores internationally.Urban Outfitters sell contemporary, urban and quirky fashions. Its three main competitors include:Abercrombie & Fitch Company, who is the main contender of this subsection of the apparel retailing industry.American Eagle Outfitters; this retailer of polo shirts and jeans place second place behind Abercrombie & Fitch Company.Buckle, which is a U.S. Midwest based brand. Buckle sells high-end brand-name and private label clothing and accessories to the high-school and college crowd at affordable prices (Candid Markets, n.d., para. 6).

Mode of Entry Brick and Mortar StoreWhen fashion retailers attempt to establish a presence in a foreign market, they face a critical decision in choosing the most appropriate entry mode, which is the institutional arrangements that a firm develops for transferring its products, technology, staff, and other resources to a foreign country (Hill et al., 1990). More specifically, entry mode choice in the fashion retail market refers to the mechanism that a fashion retailer chooses to enter, develop, and distribute its brands in a foreign market, Urban Outfitters do this through establishing key locations and building brick and mortar stores, they also use e-commerce as a tool to heighten their awareness in foreign markets (Picot-Coupey, 2006).

This entry strategy requires a high level of investment and exposes the retailer to significant risks, but it also has the greatest potential returns for a retailer, through building brand awareness and having direct interaction with customers. The advantage of direct investment for Urban Outfitters is that they have complete control of the operations (Warrington, n.d., para. 5). It serves its customers directly through retail stores, websites, mobile applications, catalogs, and customer contact centers (Bloomberg, 2014).

The new stores maintain a "counterculture" approach, and the company relies heavily on its buildings and interior displays to entice customers to enter, explore the store experince, and buy its goods. Urban Outfitters use renovated buildings, which help to convey the idea of the store being recycled and ethnic, in keeping with their target market of the nouveau hipster. Competing retailers go into a mall and put their image into a space, where Urban Outfitters use an existing space to enhance their image, none of the stores look alike. The approach is to enter a new building and adapt for themselves and the target market for that specific area. In Washington, D.C., the company took over a Woolworth's store, complete with worn wooden floors, exposed brick walls, and a steel staircase to the basement. The Ann Arbor store was established in an old theater, and other locations included a former bank and stock exchange. In 1993, Urban Outfitters stores averaged approximately 9,000 net selling square feet. (Reference for Business, 2014, para, 5) The decor within each store is unique, although the atmosphere remains similar throughout the chain casual and fun. Staff are hired within the targeted age group and depend on their personal style to guide merchandising strategies. Their stores incorporate creative inventions for fixtures and displays. The store mode of entry is an effective and communicative experience creating an unconventional atmosphere which, Urban Outfitters hope will drive customer traffic making this a fun, friendly creative place to shop. Their stores are down-to-earth places, unlike competitors including J. Crew and Gap. Urban Outfitters build their stores on the concept of authenticity (Funding Universe, n.d., para. 7).Urban Outfitters want to elevate the store experience, produce a captivating environment and strengthen customer engagement through their brick and mortar store, bringing a new, authentic store element to their chosen markets. E-CommerceAs international markets present dynamic growth opportunities, retailers have become increasingly eager to test new markets or complement an existing physical presence with an ecommerce channel. Multiple expansion roles have been employed by Urban Outfitters and differ based on strategic goals for key markets (Deloitte, 2014).Urban Outfitters have invested heavily in building an online presence. They plan to grow online sales by selling more products and categories online, expanding online overseas, into Asian markets and enhancing the ecommerce shopping experience (Retail Week, 2014).Urban Outfitters wants shopping to be a voyage of discovery for its customers. In its stores, shoppers expect to find intriguing new products that are just right for their lifestyle. The retailer strives to provide the same compelling experience on its web site, but needed to break out of the linear constraints of online shopping. By offering their customers more product online, they want to make that plentiful store experience translate into a rich online experience. Urban Outfitters face the challenge of carrying a vast, dynamic catalog of eclectic products in its online store, but require a means to replicate the suitable in-store experience for shoppers who dont live near a store or who like to shop both online and in stores. They want to become more than a store and now carry a much wider assortment online than any of our stores, thus requiring a full, broad, diverse set of offerings to be represented over the web. They now offer 250 new products a week, and the average life of a product on our site is often less than three months. Besides providing a return on investment right from the beginning, it also simplified the complex task of adding recommendations to the hundreds of new product activations each week, managing special site features and applying merchandising rules. It allows Urban Outfitters to connect and penetrate sales to their targeted customer even more effectively. The online expansion has transformed the Urban Outfitter customer experience, with approximately 27% of shoppers clicking on the recommendations. About 7% of overall site sales are linked to recommendations, versus 1% when Urban Outfitters was using its manual process (Success Story, Urban Outfitters Inc, Baynote, 2011).Urban Outfitters online site delivers to Africa, Asia Pacific, Atlantic and the Caribbean, Australia and New Zealand, Central and South America, Europe, Middle East and North America. Their online entry has elevated their sales and generated an online awareness of their brand across the globe (Urban Outfitters, n.d.).

Success in Europe and Market OpportunitiesThe retailers popularity among American youth can be gauged from the fact that its products recently featured in the top five of 500 fastest growing brands on Pinterest, a visual discovery tool that people can use to find ideas for inspiration and interests. According to recent data released by Stylophane, a social media index and analytics firm, the company was at the second position in the list of 500 retailers in terms of new followers added on Pinterest in June.While the brand is performing well in North America, its limited international business is performing even better. Thirty-one of the 44 stores Urban Outfitters operates in Europe are in the United Kingdom, so the companys continued success hinges on the performance of its stores in that market.Urban Outfitters' trendy-yet-affordable merchandise will largely contribute to its success in the United Kingdom, at a time when discounting became a common practice among retailers, due to "low disposable income, high promotions and changing shopping trends," during its economic turmoil, according to Trefis (Urban Outfitters Making More Revenue Per Store in Europe than North America, Philadelphia Business Journal, 2014).U.K. shoppers are gradually shifting to online shopping, which has raised the importance of multi-channel retailing. In response, Urban Outfitters have elevated their focus on the online site. They have been updating their websites to handle more traffic and make shopping experience more convenient. This move makes sense given that about 72 percent of adults used Internet for shopping in 2013, compared to only 53 percent in 2008.As Urban Outfitters promote their e-commerce business, this is playing a pivotal role through increased sales revenue (Can Urban Outfitters European Stores Remain More Productive Than Its Domestic Stores, Trefis, 2014).Germanys apparel sales growth remains to be one of the largest markets in Europe with annual sales of more than $75 billion. Furthermore, with rising consumer interest in high-end clothing,this market is expecting to register some value growth going forward. In 2012, despite the sluggish economic environment and weak consumer confidence, the marketplace displayed steady growth as consumers bought long-lasting high quality products from fashionable apparel brands.The biggest positive of the German apparel industry is the robust growth of online apparel retail, which has emerged as the most active channel. This can be attributed to evidence that the proportion of Internet users in the regions population is high at 84%. Currently, Urban Outfitters operates just eight stores in the market and room for growth exists. In addition, to expanding its store base, the retailer should focus on pushing its e-commerce advertising to boost store productivity (Can Urban Outfitters European Stores Remain More Productive Than Its Domestic Stores, Trefis, 2014).Initially, theexpansion was slow with only five stores added annually between 2010-2013. At the end of 2013, the brand operated 40 stores in nine European countries, including larger markets such as Germany and the U.K. Apart from the U.K and Germany., the brands presence in seven other countries is relatively small in Ireland, Spain, Holland, France, Belgium, Sweden and Denmark (only 13 stores). However, the retailer has the opportunity to open a new store in Japan.Although Europe is deemed to be a vast market, the current economic weakness is likely to keep consumer spending under pressure. As a result, apparel retailers will have to rely on selling more volume to maintain their growth in the region. They have accomplished some of this success through their online footprint. However, the expansion needs to be controlled and targeted, as aggressive store growth can negatively impact productivity.That is why Urban Outfitters is looking to identify key underpenetrated markets in Europe for its expansion. For fiscal 2015, the company plans to open three Urban Outfitters stores in the region. The retailer had recently stated that its brand has done better in Europe compared to the U.S. This factor might encourage it to slightly scale up the brands expansion going forward. It is expected that their store count will increase by 5 to 6 stores annually over the course of next five to six years, which sums up approximately 35 new stores in Europe by the end of the 2015 forecast period.Although Urban Outfitters initiated its wholesale business in Asia in 2012, plans have been made to open a store in Hong Kong. They are planning to open their own stores in the future as the region has big apparel markets such as China and Japan, and fast growing markets such as India.

According to Forbes, a rising middle class and increasing disposable income, China has become the second largest apparel market in the world. The market grew from $110 billion in 2009 to $140 billion in 2012, and is forecast to reach $220 billion by 2016.Moreover, e-commerce retail sales in China are expected to increase from $110 billion in 2012 to $440 billion in 2016.In Japan, the $100 billion marketplace has begun to recover after being subdued for over a decade. The apparel market grew by 0.4% in 2012 primarily, motivated by increased consumer expenditure. The principal winners from this rebound were the top 100 specialty apparel chains, who hold more than half of the apparel market share in Japan.The region is an important market for affordable niche brands since Japanese buyers have been purchasing longer-lasting value focused products. Therefore, a physical presence here will become inevitable for retailers such as Urban Outfitters in the future.

In India, rising disposable income, growing urbanization and the influence of western lifestyle have boosted the apparel market. Apparel sales in the region increased from $25 billion in 2007 to $40 billion in 2011, and are expected to touch $200 billion by 2025.Given the potential of these markets, Urban Outfitters will have at least 10 to 15 stores in Asia within five to six years (Where Will Urban Outfitters Expansion Come From, Forbes, 2014).

Market Failures and Decreasing SalesVon Bergen discusses a milestone that was marked for Urban Outfitters in 1997, when the company shut the doors in one of its root markets located in University City, Philadelphia. It failed to meet sales expectations and over time, it was steadily among the bottom performers. The store, lost its luster among the student population. Once, they had desired to live within the vicinity of an Urban Outfitters store, a store with a national reputation in the market of college students. However, over time, students said that they found the merchandise rather tacky and too expensive (Von Bergen, 1997). According to Gould-Kavet, the hipster phenomenon has recently evolved past mass fashion consumption as they seek more authenticity and product that is less available. They look through vintage shops and second hand markets, the piece that it is one of a kind and allows the hipster to be a little more obscure and fashionable in their own way (The Demise of the Subcultural Identity: Towards a Postmodern Theory of The Hipster and Hipster Style, Gould-Kavet, n.d.).The Urban Outfitters corporation has also acknowledged that it has made some serious fashion mistakes of late, with financial and reputational consequences (How Urban Outfitters Plans to Win Back the Hipsters It Lost, Quartz, 2014).The controversial mistakes include the vintage faux-bloodstained Kent State Sweatshirt which made reference to the Kent State Massacre, an Eat Less printed t-shirt offended advocates for the prevention of eating disorder sufferers and a t-shirt that resembled the Star of David from the Holocaust was described as distasteful and offensive. The often bizarre styles sold in store may be the reason as to why the company is losing investors confidence, according to Quintiliano, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. The shares have decreased 27 percent this year (13 Urban Outfitters Controversies, The Week, 2014). However, these controversial stories might be successful, one reason that Urban Outfitters has been a successful company is that they focus on a particular target market customer. The company understands what they find funny and topical and hone in on it, part of the appeal is doing products that other people find offensive and to get their customer talking about them. Urban Outfitters has long described itself as fashion forward. However, earlier this year retail analysts cautioned that the company might have pushed too far with some of their latest designs, including an infamous denim-and-tutu creation. Some of their styles are condemned for being too wacky (This Bizarre Denim and Tutu Combination Made Goldman Sachs Think Twice About Urban Outfitters, Quartz, 2013).

The International Impact on SalesRecently, the company has recorded a rise in profits, however this was mainly due to growth at Anthropologie and the Free People line.The core Urban Outfitters chain, which accounts for approximately 44% of the companys overall business, remains a weakness: sales from stores open for at least a year fell by 9%, after falling 7% in the preceding quarter, and are expected to shrink further for the first fiscal quarter of 2015 (Can Urban Outfitters European Stores Remain More Productive Than Its Domestic Stores, Trefis, 2014).According to Hilario (2014) the retailers stores in the United States and Canada accounted for 84.9 percent of its overall sales, according to financial website Trefis. The companys net revenue last year was $3.08 billion, $2.62 billion of which stemmed from North America. The average annual revenue per North American store was $5.61 million.

In comparison, the retailers European stores contributed 9.3 percent to its overall sales, or $287 million. But, the average annual revenue per store was $6.51 million, 15 percent more than its North American counterparts.Furthermore, European stores were 25 percent more productive in 2012. Trefis said it projects it will stay ahead of North American revenues per store due to healthy growth expected in the United Kingdom and Germany (Urban Outfitters Making More Revenue Per Store in Europe than North America, Philadelphia Business Journal, 2014).

Despite, unfavorable economic difficulties that still impact the U.K.s apparel market, its large size and positive growth forecast are encouraging for the companys outlook. The U.K. market remains profitable at over $59 billion and has seen positive growth over the past four years, notwithstanding an unsteady economy. Germany is one of the largest apparel markets in Europe and has seen consistent growth in the recent past, regardless of the similar, unstable environment. German consumption is moving slowly away from the discount retailer and trends suggest that they are investing in better quality goods.Growth is likely to accelerate going forward, fueled by the rapid development of online retail sales and proliferation of casual clothing. The fashion industry is expected to climb at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3% through to 2017, which will bring it to an estimated $96 billion. As a result, Urban Outfitters has every reason to remain interested in the market (Can Urban Outfitters European Stores Remain More Productive Than Its Domestic Stores, Trefis, 2014).ConclusionThe Funding Universe offers an insight into Urban Outfitters aim to appeal to the mainstream market and those who want to cross the line every once in a while; they do keep on top of fashion trends (Funding Universe, n.d., para, 8). Maintaining a constant flow of fashionable merchandise for their segment is critically important for their ongoing performance. The company maintains, selects and develops products to satisfy their objectives, offering alternative styles at chosen price points that are consistent with their markets spending patterns (URBN FY 2014 Annual Review).

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