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ZARA: THE EVOLVING FAST-FASHION INDUSTRY1

Dan Doiron wrote this case solely to provide material for class discussion. The author does not intend to illustrate either effective or
ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The author may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to
protect confidentiality.

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Copyright © 2023, Ivey Business School Foundation Version: 2023-12-11

In March 2023, Zara, one of the primary leaders and the most profitable global competitor in the fast-
fashion industry, found itself increasingly under attack on several fronts. The industry had a growing poor
reputation regarding the negative human and environmental impacts associated with its supply chains.
The industry was also experiencing a significant prevalence and growth of online shopping, which had
taken the women’s apparel industry by storm. This had the effect of enabling the entrance of many new
online competitors that were not burdened with large and expensive bricks-and-mortar retail networks,
unlike Zara with its 5,815 high-end stores.2 Last, the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in
the industry, supporting retail purchasing decisions, had progressed in ways not envisioned ten years
prior.

All of these factors were putting enormous pressure on the industry-leading, fast-fashion business and
profit model of Zara and its holding company Industria de Diseño Textil SA (Inditex). What would the
future look like for Zara as the fundamental fast-fashion business model evolved and changed? Would it be
an evolutionary step down the fast-fashion curve or perhaps something entirely different and more
revolutionary?

ZARA’S INDUSTRY LEADING BUSINESS MODEL

Over the previous twenty years, Inditex’s business model had propelled it to the top of the fashion
manufacturing and retail industry, with 2022 industry-leading sales of US$32.6 billion 3 (up 17.5 per cent
over 2021) and extraordinary after-tax profits equalling $4.47 billion or 13.7 per cent of sales (see Exhibit
1).4 Online sales of $8.4 billion in 2022 commanded a full 25.8 per cent of Inditex sales, growing by 4 per
cent year-over-year.5 Zara’s business model appeared to be relatively simple: spend time with its
customers, who were primarily younger inner-city women, with an eye to identifying current fashion
desires and trends; use its superior design and manufacturing capability to bring these new ideas to stores
(and websites) in as little as two weeks; and drive industry-leading per-customer store visits and sales at
full price through policies of scarcity and near zero replenishment of popular styles. The success of this
business model was indisputable—it worked! Among other things, it allowed Inditex and Zara to avoid
costly markdowns associated with undesirable or off-trend fashion, which in many ways represented the
evil underbelly of the fashion retail business. For Zara this risk was minimized, with as little as 15 per
cent of its inventory sold at markdown prices, versus over 35 per cent for the industry. 6 Inditex aptly
described its approach as: “Nurturing a highly intimate relationship with its customers, Zara’s designers
respond instinctively to their changing needs, reacting to the latest trends and constant feedback to deliver
new ideas for everyone in the right place and at the right moment.”7

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Zara’s shareholders were rewarded for this innovative approach with years of solid growth and an
extraordinary market capitalization of $97.9 billion by March 2023. 8 To put this in perspective, traditional
competitor Hennes & Mauritz Inc. (H&M) was valued at $19.2 billion, while The Gap, Inc. (Gap) only
recognized $3.66 billion in value.9 Zara had not only led the fashion industry but, in many ways, created
the fast-fashion business model that had successfully disrupted traditional fashion retailing. It was truly a
force to be reckoned with in the fashion industry.

THE GLOBAL FASHION INDUSTRY

The global apparel market was estimated to be worth $1.7 trillion in 2022, representing 2 per cent of
global gross domestic product (GDP). Employing approximately 430 million people, or 12.6 per cent of
the global workforce, the industry was one of the largest in the world and was expected to grow at a
compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.8 per cent between 2023 and 2027.10

The growth in the apparel industry was influenced by several factors, including changing demographics
and urbanization of the global population. Urbanization was not a new trend—this phenomenon had been
occurring for centuries, with people drawn to urban centres by the promise of economic opportunities and
access to services and amenities, along with environmental and social factors. This had accelerated in
recent times, with over half of the world’s population (55 per cent) living in urban centres by 2022. This
trend was expected to continue; projections were that by 2050, 80 per cent of the global population would
live in urban centres (see Exhibit 2) with the total global population expected to reach 9.7 billion in that
timeframe.11

The global women’s apparel market was predicted to grow by a CAGR of 3.8 per cent from 2022 to 2028.
In 2022, it was valued at $965 billion.12 Growth was traditionally driven by several factors, including
rising disposable income, increasing fashion consciousness, and changing lifestyles, particularly in the
large urban centres of the world. The fast-fashion industry had no small part in driving this growth by
meeting the demands of these fast-changing fashion trends and desires. The United States and Asia
Pacific were the largest markets globally for women’s apparel. Trends toward sustainability and ethical
fashion were also expected to impact growth in this segment, with an increasing number of consumers
becoming aware of the environmental and social impact of the fashion industry—thus, the “slow fashion”
movement was created. However, the early days for this segment of the industry only garnered an
estimated value of $6.5 billion by early 2023.13 The extent to which these consumers would vote with
their conscience versus the buying power afforded by fast fashion remained to be seen.

Industry growth opportunities, specifically in developed countries, were being led by changing
demographics, including the plus-size segment. The global plus-size women’s clothing market was valued
at $193 billion in 2021 and predicted to grow at a CAGR of 4.3 per cent through 2030.14 This category
was growing for several reasons, including an increased awareness of body positivity and size inclusivity.
In response to this opportunity, many fashion brands expanded their size ranges to include more plus
sizes, with some launching dedicated plus-size collections. E-commerce made it easier for women in this
category to find and purchase clothing. Growth in this market was expected to continue due to
demographic factors, such as the aging of the population and increasing rates of obesity, with 41.9 per
cent of the US population registering as obese at the time.15

Global online fashion sales reached $744 billion in 2022, up from $668 billion in 2021 and were projected
to reach $821 billion in 2023, a 10.3 per cent annual growth rate. Women’s apparel was predicted to
dominate this market segment, given that it represented 68.5 per cent of 2021 global online revenue.16
With the overall fashion industry having achieved a growth rate of 4.5 per cent in 2022, the dominance
of this

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segment and this retail channel needed to be considered. 17 Asia Pacific was the world’s largest market for
online apparel sales with a projected annual growth of 11 per cent through 2025, driven by countries like
China and India.18 The rapid growth in mobile commerce was also contributing to the growth in this
category, as more consumers in developing countries gained access to the Internet via mobile devices.

A CHANGING LANDSCAPE

The global fast-fashion industry was seeing material change, driven by three primary factors: the growing
environmental impact and social costs created by the industry; the shift to online shopping preferences;
and the related emergence of new AI technology.

The Real Cost of Fast Fashion

In 2018, shoppers purchased up to five times more clothing than they had in 1980. This amounted to an
average of sixty-eight garments per consumer in 2018, equating to a staggering eighty billion garments
annually. If the global population grew to 8.5 billion by 2030, as experts believed, with an accompanying
growth in global GDP, global fashion would grow by 63 per cent from sixty-two million to 102 million
tons produced annually.19 Clearly, this would not be sustainable for the planet.

Consumers were increasingly becoming agitated by the environmental impacts of throwaway fashion.
Landfills were filling up with recent out-of-style fashion and Zara’s strategy of designing clothes to only
be worn seven to ten times to keep pace with the rate of change in fashion trends could be viewed as
contributing to the issue.20 Ninety-two million tons of garments made their way into landfills in 2022
alone, foreshadowing a trend that could lead to 134 million tons per year by 2030. 21 Fashionable clothes
also consumed a large quantity of natural resources to manufacture and transport. Water, which in many
countries was moving from a commodity to a scarce resource, was used in abundance to manufacture
clothes. Up to 2,700 litres of water were required for each new cotton blouse or pair of stylish tights. As
of 2020, 79 trillion litres of water were consumed by the fashion industry annually, equating to 20 per
cent of global industrial water pollution.22 Carbon emissions from the industry topped 2.1 billion tons in
2022, roughly 10 per cent of world greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).23 At current growth rates, that could
increase by 50 per cent by 2030. One kilogram of material generated 23 kilograms of greenhouse gases. 24
Nike, Inc. and Inditex both reported 2022 emissions of approximately 10 million tons of carbon dioxide
equivalent (CO2e), which equated to over two million gas-powered cars. The industry also used 25 per
cent of chemicals produced worldwide.25 The fast-fashion industry was one of the worst polluters on the
planet, coming in as the sixth-largest industrial source of greenhouse gases (GHGs).26

When washed, fashion produced with synthetic fabrics released microfibres into the water system which
then made their way into oceans, lakes, and rivers, were ingested by fish and other marine life, and
ultimately made their way into the human food chain. In 2023, microfibres were omnipresent in over 90
per cent of fresh and seawater samples, including, surprisingly, the waters of Antarctica.27

Of the one hundred billion items of clothing produced in 2019, 20 per cent went unsold. This was not
particularly surprising given the nature of fast-changing fashion trends. These unwanted garments were
ultimately shredded, buried, or burned. In a shocking acknowledgement in 2018, the British fashion house
Burberry admitted in its annual report to incinerating $38 million worth of its stock, up 43 per cent from
the previous year. In 2017, a Danish TV show, Operation X, exposed H&M for burning twelve tons of
unsellable clothing since 2013.28

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The global fashion industry employed one out of six people in 2019, making it the world’s largest labor-
intensive industry. However, fewer than 2 per cent of these employees earned a living wage. The industry
employed more than 57 million people, the majority of whom were from underdeveloped regions. The
enormity of this global employment was driven by the insatiable desire for fashion in the developed
world. In 2017, the United States imported $82.7 billion in apparel, while exporting only $5.7 billion. In
that same year, Britain imported 92.4 per cent of its clothing.29

The fashion industry, for all intents and purposes, presented as an environmental and human catastrophe
proceeding on an ever-worsening trajectory.

Shift to Online Shopping

With the growth of online apparel sales, large e-commerce companies were taking stock. In 2021,
Amazon.com, Inc. (Amazon) and Shein were the top-visited websites for purchasing apparel. 30 Amazon
alone sold over $41 billion in its fashion business in 2021.31 ASOS PLC, a relatively new UK-based
online fashion retailer, sold $4.85 billion in its fiscal year ended August 2022, with a 43.6 per cent gross
margin.32 Online purchasing was being driven, for the most part, by the increasing use of mobile
commerce. In 2021,
67.2 per cent of all e-commerce sales globally were mobile.33

Online shopping represented 19.6 per cent of fashion retail sales in 2021 and was expected to reach 25 per
cent by 2025.34 This trend, among other things, had opened the market for online-only retailers, many of
whom were emulating Zara’s fast-fashion manufacturing capabilities without the burden associated with
running expensive stores. The relevance of the physical store was being called into question. That
inclination, in many ways, would shake up one of Zara’s key competitive advantages as it depended on its
customers to give it new ideas for future products; the store was the perfect place to gather this insight.
Not surprisingly, Inditex responded to the growing e-commerce trend by closing or consolidating retail
floor space, with the number of stores as of January 2023 at 5,815, down 10.2 per cent from 6,477 in
January 2022.35 Previously, it had been on a roll, opening 2,425 new stores from a total of 5,044 in 2010
to a peak of 7,469 stores in 2019.36 That trend was now in reverse.

Not surprisingly, the rise of e-commerce led to business and store closures by what many considered to be
strong traditional clothing retailers. Victoria’s Secret & Co. announced in May 2020 the closure of 250
stores in the United States and Canada. Macy’s, Inc. confirmed it would be closing thirty-seven more of
its stores in 2021. Lord & Taylor LLC filed for bankruptcy and liquidated thirty-eight stores. Gap was
planning to close 350 stores by 2024, primarily those in shopping malls and an additional 130 North
American Banana Republic stores over a three-year period. American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. planned to
shutter up to five hundred stores over a two-year period. Iconic retailer Penney OpCo LLC (JCPenney)
filed for bankruptcy in May 2020 under the weight of $4 billion in massive debt, forcing the closure of
242 stores.37 Even Zara announced in June of 2020 that it would be closing 1,200 of its 7,412 stores as
part of a restructuring plan, with a focus on the continued growth of e-commerce sales.38

It became clear that many fashion retailers, including Zara, were struggling to get out from under the
weight of their retail networks while growing their online sales.

Emerging New Competitive Technology in Fashion Retail

New online fast-fashion retailers, like UK-based Boohoo.com UK Limited, were emerging as not only
contenders, but perhaps leaders in the growing fast-fashion industry. These retailers had an advantage in

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that they did not have to support a legacy bricks-and-mortar network of stores (and their related costs) but
faced the disadvantage that they were, in many cases, relatively unknown brands to consumers. They also
did not have that intimate in-person relationship with their customers that retail stores often offered,
which retailers like Zara used to their advantage in spotting and identifying the latest fashion trends and
desires.

However, newer technology like AI was starting to replace the individual customer relationship. AI
allowed fashion firms to get to know their customers in a very personal way. Products and shopping
experiences could be personalized to the individual with minimal time interaction, with sizes that fit and,
importantly, products could be pushed to the customer driven by recent customer search history and
natural language processing engines. Trends would be easier to predict given the breadth of AI and its
ability to identify customer behaviour with predictive analytics. It would even be able to predict if
customers were planning to make a purchase soon, driving direct marketing efforts related to that future
purchase decision. AI would drive demand forecasting back into supply chains against upcoming trends,
minimizing the number of fashion misses and related markdowns retailers experienced. 39 This would
make fashion retailers more competitive and profitable.

Augmented reality and virtual reality were also evolving to provide a more immersive shopping
experience for customers. Customers could try on clothing virtually prior to purchasing, driving informed
decisions and reducing costly returns. More personalized decisions and experiences using this technology
could offer recommendations based on body shape, style preference, and past purchasing behaviour.
Virtual prototypes of clothing could be tested and modified prior to production, driving a more efficient
and effective design and distribution process.

ZARA’S TRADITIONAL APPROACH

Inditex (and Zara), one of the world’s leading fast-fashion retailers, with 2022 sales of $32.6 billion, was
credited with inventing the fast-fashion business model.40 Amancio Ortega, Zara’s founder, understood
that its target customers, who were primarily younger women living in large urban centres, exhibited
three key behaviours which Zara would have to adapt to and leverage to succeed . . . and succeed it did.

Hard to Predict and Influence

From the very beginning, it was well understood that fashion apparel customers were a fickle group that
could be extremely hard to predict and influence. They could be easily swayed by unpredictable factors,
such as celebrity fashion, friends’ fashion choices, or the need to differentiate themselves in a crowded
urban environment. These variables made it challenging to predict the next fashion hit, which drove the
single largest risk in the fashion retail apparel business: a fashion miss. Fashion misses resulted in the
requirement to remove or discount stock to make room for new inventory. Firms in this industry, on
average, discounted more than one-third of their stock, while another third was never sold, meaning over
half of their clothing did not sell at full price.41

To mitigate the risk of a fashion miss, many apparel retailers spent an exorbitant amount of money on
advertising, with a focus on building brand awareness and consumer loyalty. This worked—to a degree.
For example, in 2022, Gap spent $1.04 billion on advertising, against $16.67 billion in sales, up from a
high advertising spend of $816 million in 2020.42 This represented 6.7 per cent of sales or, importantly,
16.8 per cent of gross profit margins.43 Zara, by contrast, spent very little on advertising, at just 0.3 per
cent of sales in 2022.44 In the highly competitive fashion industry this was certainly a defining driver of
profitability.

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Tastes Changed Often

Fashion cycles could also be notoriously short, especially in the urban womenswear segment. Trends
came and went, which drove fashion retailers to introduce new fashions more often and avoid
replenishing items where “old” stock might necessitate potential discounts. Fast fashion had
approximately fifty-two “micro- seasons” per year, driving new style releases weekly.45 This contrasted
significantly with traditional fashion retailers that orchestrated two main fashion seasons per year.46

In the world of ever-changing consumer tastes, replenishment rates should ideally have been low,
reflecting a strong tie to consumers’ needs or desires. This impacted both inventory turnover ratios and
the ability to sell items at or near full price. Introducing new fashions frequently could have the positive
desired effect of enticing customers back to the store more often. A fashion retailer’s ability to react
quickly to shifting fashion preferences was a defining factor of success in this market segment.

Zara enabled success by leveraging its ability to adapt to its target customer behaviours. It maintained
several key company policies to enable success, one of which was its replenishment policy. Essentially,
Zara rarely replenished store inventory, even for items that sold well. 47 Instead, it chose to fill that shelf
space with new items. This created two important, and relatively unique to Zara, customer behaviours.
First, customers came back to its stores more often in search of these new fashion items, at a rate of
seventeen times per year (versus an average of 3–4 times for competitors).48 Second, if customers saw a
product they liked, they would typically purchase it on the spot, as they knew (or rather, had been trained
by Zara) that this item would not likely be there the next time they visited the store. This had the desired
effect of driving higher inventory turn ratios for Inditex and Zara (5.9 times in 2022 versus the industry
average of 3.4) and lower markdowns (only 15 per cent of inventory was marked down to sale prices
versus 35 per cent for the industry.)49 This strategic approach to offering customers on-trend and on-time
fashion helped Zara derive an industry-leading 57 per cent gross profit margin for 2022 versus 40 per cent
for the retail apparel industry.50 Clearly these policies were having their desired effect on Zara’s bottom
line.

Much of Zara’s success was attributable to its big, beautiful stores located in chic shopping districts in the
world’s large urban centres. These stores were central to understanding customers’ changing fashion
desires. Zara’s key employees, whom it called “commercials,” were adept at spotting and understanding
new fashion trends, which Zara then manufactured and delivered to its stores in as little as two weeks.51

WOULD CUSTOMERS CARE?

One of the big questions shaping the future of the fast-fashion industry became, Would fashion
consumers, particularly those Zara targeted, adjust their buying behaviour based on the growing negative
environmental footprint of the industry? Fast fashion, in many ways, democratized luxury fashion trends for
everyday shoppers by allowing them to purchase and wear fashion that was otherwise perceived to be only
available to the wealthy. Did customers understand the real cost of this fashion—that which was not
reflected in the price tag? A 2018 report that surveyed seven hundred shoppers aged eighteen to thirty-
seven found, understandably, that people prioritized ease of purchase and price over sustainability. The
survey found that consumers ranked ease of purchase (95 per cent of those surveyed), price (95 per cent),
uniqueness of product (92 per cent), and brand name (60 per cent) over sustainability (35 per cent).52 It
would seem that only some consumers cared.

A 2019 Harvard Business Review article pointed out that “a frustrating paradox stubbornly remains at the
heart of green business: Few consumers who report positive attitudes toward eco-friendly products and
services follow through with their wallets. In one recent survey 65 per cent said they want to buy purpose-
driven brands that advocate sustainability, yet only about 26 per cent actually do so.”53

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The fashion industry, like others, was not highly motivated to drive and support ethical and
environmentally sensitive fashion if consumers were not voting with their purses and wallets. Even
simple changes like environmental labelling were slow to emerge. Members of the Sustainability Apparel
Coalition (SAC), of which Zara was one, were slow to push for and adopt simple changes related to
transparent labelling. Baptiste Carriere-Pradal, SAC vice president of transparency, set aside the notion of
regulated or compulsory labelling, preferring less effective voluntary labelling. It would seem this was not
coming to a store near you anytime soon.54

WHAT WAS NEXT FOR INDITEX AND ZARA?

Where did Zara’s approach fit in a world where customers were shopping more and more online, while
increasingly adopting a slow(er) fashion approach in the face of the ever-increasing and disastrous
environmental impacts of the fast-fashion industry, all coupled with a growing (online) competitive
environment?

The fast-fashion landscape was changing. The world which Zara invented—and dominated—was
changing. These changes threatened the very foundation of Zara’s business model, while at the same time
opening the door to many new competitors, most of whom were not burdened with expensive global retail
networks. AI was enabling key insights into changing fashion trends and desires, which previously had
been primarily drawn directly from personal interaction with consumers in-store. Influentially, online
apparel shopping was now a material part of the business. Importantly, how would regulatory frameworks
focused on reducing environmental impacts influence these changes, and perhaps the speed of change?

One thing was certain—the three big trends driving change were accelerating and virtually unstoppable:
the industry’s growing environmental impact and social costs; the shift to online shopping; and the related
emergence of new AI technology. Adapting to these changes was a growing necessity for success in the
fast-paced fashion apparel industry.

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EXHIBIT 1: INDITEX 2018–2022 SELECT FINANCIAL DATA IN € BILLIONS

2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 CAGR

2018–2022
Revenues
Net sales 32.6 27.7 20.4 28.2 26.1 5%
Profits and cash flow
EBITDA 8.6 7.2 4.6 7.6 5.4 10%
EBIT 5.5 4.3 1.5 4.8 4.3 5%
Net income 4.1 3.2 1.1 3.6 3.4 4%
Cash flow 7.3 6.5 3.9 6.7 4.4 11%
Financial structure
Group equity 17.0 15.7 14.5 14.9 14.7 3%
Net financial debt −10.1 −9.5 −7.6 −8.1 −6.7 9%
(cash)
Store selling space (m²)
Zara (including
3,027,914 3,141,790
Zara Home)
Total Inditex 4,473,358 4,762,157
Stores
Zara 1,885 2,007
Total Inditex 5,815 6,477 6,829 7,469 7,490 −5%

Note: € = EUR = euro—€1 = US $1.07 effective March 01, 2023; CAGR = compounded annual growth rate;
EBITDA = earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization; EBIT = earnings before interest and
taxes; m2 = square metres.
Source: Created by the case author based on “Inditex Group Annual Report 2022”, Inditex, accessed
April 24, 2023, https://static.inditex.com/annual_report_2022/pdf/Inditex-group-annual-report-2022.pdf, pg
113, 86.

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EXHIBIT 2: THE GROWING IMPACT OF URBANIZATION, 2022

Source: Bruno Venditti with graphics/design by Chrstina Kostandi, “Visualizing the Material Impact of Global
Urbanization,” April 20, 2022, https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-material-impact-of-global-
urbanization/. Image used with permission from Visual Capitalist.

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ENDNOTES
1
This case has been written on the basis of published sources only. Consequently, the interpretation
and perspectives presented in this case are not necessarily those of Industria de Diseño Textil SA (Inditex),
Zara, or any of their employees.
2
Inditex, Inditex Group Annual Report 2022, March 14, 2023, 29,
https://static.inditex.com/annual_report_2022/pdf/Inditex- group-annual-report-2022.pdf.
3
All currency amounts are in US dollars (USD).
4
Inditex, Inditex Group Annual Report 2022, 18.
5
“FY2022 Results,” Inditex, March 15, 2023, https://www.inditex.com/itxcomweb/en/press/news-detail?
contentId=3dbc9f5d- 2f00-46d2-bd45-8bb2ab945261.
6
Milos Djordjevic, “20 Amazing Zara Statistics That Show the Brand’s Value,” Fashion Discounts, April 8,
2022, https://fashiondiscounts.uk/zara-statistics/.
7
“Brands—ZARA,” Inditex, accessed March 21, 2023, https://www.inditex.com/itxcomweb/en/brands.
8
Inditex, “Market Capitalization of Inditex (IDEXY),” Companiesmaretcap.com, accessed March 21, 2023,
https://companiesmarketcap.com/inditex/marketcap/.
9
H&M, “Market Capitalization of H&M (HM-B.ST),” Companiesmarketcap.com, accessed March 21, 2023,
https://companiesmarketcap.com/h-m/marketcap/; Gap Inc., “Market Capitalization of Gap Inc.
(GPS),”Companiesmarketcap.com, accessed March 21, 2023,
https://companiesmarketcap.com/gap-inc/marketcap/.
10
Sky Ariella, “28 Dazzling Fashion Industry Statistics [2023]: How Much Is the Fashion Industry Worth,”
Zippia, March 6, 2023, https://www.zippia.com/advice/fashion-industry-statistics/; “Apparel—Worldwide,”
Statista, accessed March 21, 2023, https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/apparel/worldwide.
11
Bruno Venditti, “ This Chart Shows the Impact Rising Urbanization Will Have on the World,” World
Economic Forum, April 26, 2022, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/04/global-
urbanization-material- consumption/#:~:text=Today%2C%20more%20than%204.3%20billion,rise%20to
%2080%25%20by%202050; Neil Ruiz, Luis Noe-Bustamante, and Nadya Saber, “Coming of Age,”
International Monetary Fund, March 2020, accessed March 21, 2023,
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/2020/03/infographic-global-population-trends-
picture#:~:text=In%20just%2030%20years%2C%20the,to%20reach%20just%209.7%20billion.
12
“Women Apparel Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2023–
2028,” Research and Markets, accessed March 21, 2023,
https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5742971/women-apparel-market- global-industry-
trends#:~:text=The%20global%20women%20apparel%20market,3.8%25%20during%202022%2D2028.
13
Arabella Ruiz, “47 Official Sustainable Fashion Statistics,” TheRoundUp.org, accessed March 22, 2023,
https://theroundup.org/sustainable-fashion- statistics/#:~:text=The%20sustainable%20fashion%20industry
%20is,expected%20to%20hit%20%2415%20Billion.
14
Research and Markets, “Global Plus Size Women’s Clothing Market Report 2022–2030: 25–45 Years
Segment Dominated the Market and Is Expected to Continue,” GlobeNewswire, September 21, 2022,
https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news- release/2022/09/21/2519850/28124/en/Global-Plus-Size-Women-s-
Clothing-Market-Report-2022-2030-25-45-Years- Segment-Dominated-the-Market-and-is-Expected-to-
Continue.html.
15
Molly Warren, Stacy Beck, and Madison West, “The State of Obesity 2022: Better Policies for a
Healthier America,” TFAH.org, September 2022,
https://www.tfah.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/2022ObesityReport_FINAL3923.pdf.
16
“Global Fashion Industry Statistics,” FashionUnited, accessed March 22, 2023,
https://fashionunited.com/global-fashion- industry-statistics; ReportLinker, “Fashion E-Commerce Global
Market Report 2023,” GlobeNewswire, February 17, 2023,
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