Zara uses internal integration which means they looked to buy their own means to supply the products, so they aren't reliant on an external company, who haven't got Zara's success as their goal.
By using external sourcing, the vendor may sell the brand low quality alternatives causing bad reproductions on Zara.
The independent vendor will need to make a profit to make the sales viable, therefore every time Zara approaches the vendor, they would be paying unnecessary funds.
An internal integrated supply chain works so well for Zara as the size of the brand is so large therefore have enough profit to be able to fund the purchase of small companies.
Zara’s well-known quick product development cycle is a result of integrating the line between designing, manufacturing and distribution
Smaller companies may not be able to become integrated as the process is extremely complicated. It would involve the company to become responsible for the following processes: materials to the vendor, making of the product, loading of containers, international transportation, gateway operation, domestic transportation, distribution centre and then final delivery to the retail stores.
A smaller independent store such as Vanilla on Norwich High street, wouldn't have the same demand that a company such as Zara would attract, therefore wouldn't need to create such quantities. This means a lot of stock would have to be stored as brands have to buy the materials at wholesale cost for large quantities, making it not financially viable as the store is left with high quality of previous trend components.
A brand may be resistant to be integrated as in the instant of prices rising for materials, a brand would have a fixed price with an external brand so this price rise wouldn't effect them, whereas an internal integrated brand would see the price rise have reproductions on their profit margin.
In conclusion, more established brands look towards becoming internally integrated as they have a high demand so need to purchase higher quantity of materials. Compared to a smaller company who would need a significantly reduced quantity, they wouldn't have any benefit from being integrated as they would be left with previous trends components.