1

Student Names:

Marian Flavin C09683194

Clare ODonnell C06485880
Aisling Owens C10381113
Marina Pinto D13126329
PG Dip Fashion Buying &
Management
International Fashion Retailing
Amanda Ratcliffe
CA2 Group Assignment
December 9, 2014

Course:
Module:
Lecturer:
Assignment:
Date:

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: ____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
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_____________________________________________

Introduction
This 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 Company

Reuters 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 Move
By 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

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 Moves
1998 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 Expansion

Upon 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-Commerce
Urban 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 Issues

Urban 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.
-

Branding
Urban Outfitters

has

long

been

associated

with

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

predesigned retail space in a shopping centre, generates interest in

-

the retailer and creates hype in a new market.

The Transfer of Competence
Urbans 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 highschool and college crowd at affordable prices (Candid Markets, n.d.,
para. 6).

Mode of Entry
-

Brick and Mortar Store

When 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,

10

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-Commerce
As 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

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

11

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 Opportunities

The 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.

12

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).

13

Initially, the expansion 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

14

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 Sales

Von 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

15

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 Sales

Recently, 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

16

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

17

in the market (Can Urban Outfitters European Stores Remain More

Productive Than Its Domestic Stores, Trefis, 2014).
Conclusion
The 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).

Bibliography
13 Urban Outfitters controversies, The Week (2014).
(http://theweek.com/article/index/220370/racist-navajo-attire-and-7-otherurban-outfitters-controversies)
Can Urban Outfitters European Stores Remain More Productive than its
Domestic Stores? Trefis (2014).
(http://www.trefis.com/stock/urbn/articles/248364/can-urban-outfitterseuropean-stores-remain-more-productive-than-its-domestic-stores/201407-25)
Urban Outfitters Europe introduce international shipping, Multivu (2013).
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18

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