Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 1,7, University of Applied Sciences Köln RFH, language: English, abstract: This paper seeks to analyze the internationalization process of the Spanish fashion retailer "Zara". It adopts an in-depth case approach based on extensive secondary research. The paper is organized into three parts: It begins with a brief overview of the global fashion and retail industry, as well as a short overview of the company itself. This is followed by the main part, which examines the key aspects in the internationalization of Zara, namely: chronological and geographical sequence, role of culture, EPRG scheme, entry strategies, timing and allocation, IMGT model and the form of organization. In the final section the current situation of Zara is discussed and the results of the case study are summarized and evaluated. Zara was founded in 1975, it became the flagship of Inditex. Inditex stands for Industria de Diseño Textil SA manufactures and sells clothing for men, women and children. Its brands include Zara, Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho and Zara Home. Zara was founded by Amancio Ortega Gaona in 1963 and is headquartered in A Coruna, Spain.Today Zara stores are located on every continent, with 2213 stores in 93 countries. In addition to that Zara also sells their products in 39 online markets. In 2016 the firm opened 51 new stores, including new countries like Aruba, Nicaragua, Vietnam, New Zealand and Paraguay. The Brand created its image and success with the way it kept up with street fashion in the changing times and how they take a look at how fashion is changing every day. New designs can be placed into stores within a week or two as a result of a fast fashion concept and manufacturing in Europe. This is Zara's competitive advantage bias its competitors like H&M or Mango. They would need up to six months until they get their new designs into market. In comparison Zara is the brand with the highest brand value, H&M has the highest revenue and Mango is distributing in most countries. They are all in direct competition because they have the same target group at a similar price for their products. It took Zara 13 years from the inception of the firm to the first foreign expansion. The company decided to first test their business model, acquire knowledge, built capacity and establish a competitive advantage before entering new markets. In Spain they started a, so called, long domestic market penetration, by opening 82 stores throughout the years.