H&M aims to reshape stores for digital age - https://on.ft.com/2S6Erio
Swedish retailer eyes transformation of outlets into logistical hubs for online shopping
Hennes & Mauritz plans to power up its 5,000 stores, using them more as logistical hubs for online shopping, as a new leadership team reshapes the world’s second-largest clothes retailer for digital growth.
The Swedish purveyor of fast fashion has been hard hit, like most retailers, by the move to online purchases and was criticised by investors for continuing to open hundreds of stores even as rivals emphasised internet sales.
H&M will this year open the fewest stores in decades, adding a net 25 to the 5,076 it ended last year with.
“We think the role of the stores will change,” said Karl-Johan Persson, who has been put forward as the new chairman after being chief executive since 2009. “How can we use those stores even better as logistical hubs for deliveries, for pick-ups, for returns?”
Helena Helmersson, H&M’s first female chief executive, said in a separate interview: “It is one of the things that will be super exciting to understand going forward: how we see stores today with digital growth moving faster. We have a fantastic advantage in terms of our physical store network. It is what we do with it.”
H&M unveiled its biggest management shake-up in decades on Thursday when Mr Persson was put forward to replace his father, the company’s largest shareholder Stefan Persson, as chairman, while Ms Helmersson, a former sustainability manager and 23-year company veteran, takes operational charge.
The Swedish group surrendered its crown as the world’s largest fashion retailer to Spain’s Inditex — the owner of Zara — during Mr Persson’s 10 years as chief executive and was seen as slow to adapt to the move by consumers away from physical to online shopping.
Under Mr Persson, H&M increased the number of stores by about 150 per cent, against just 50 per cent for Inditex.
But in the past two years, H&M has sought to refresh its physical stores with a variety of trials in shops from Stockholm to Berlin. “We still believe in physical stores,” said Mr Persson. “We want to make them more inspiring and easier to shop in, so we are running tests to make the stores more attractive.”
H&M will open about 200 stores this year, mostly in emerging markets, but will close 175 in established markets in Europe and North America.
It offers online customers the ability to collect their purchases in a shop in 14 countries and allows them to return clothes bought on the internet in 16 countries. It is aiming to increase both.
Mr Persson said the company was working out how many warehouses it needed in each country to supply its physical stores and separately for its online sales.
Other companies are aiming to combine the two sales channels. Ikea, another global retail chain started in Sweden, is seeking to turn parts of its out-of-town stores into distribution centres from which it can send online orders and serve physical shoppers.