Logistics and supply chain management in luxury fashion retail: empirical investigation of Italian firms

The Italian industry of fashion goods is a business worth 67.6h billion in 2006 (Il Sole 24ore, January 10, 2007), of which about 26h billion is due to the luxury segment. Marketing gurus state that ‘‘consumers everywhere at every income level want more luxury’’ [Danziger, P.N., 2005. Let them Eat the Cake: Marketing Luxury to the Masses as well as the Classes. Dearborn Trade Publishing, Chicago]: therefore, companies should move brands towards a higher positioning and add more valuable features to products and services, but this cannot be obtained only by means of marketing efforts. Which is the role of operations and supply chain management in luxury fashion companies’ success? This paper presents the results of the exploratory stage of a research project ongoing at Politecnico di Milano and dealing with supply chain management in the luxury fashion industry. In total, 12 Italian luxury fashion retailers have been studied in order to describe the main features of operations and supply chain strategies in the luxury fashion segment and to identify their role with respect to the relevant critical success factors.