H&M strategy: Becoming more flexible, fast and efficient

10 Nov '20

2 min read

Pic: Shutterstock

Realising that the future lies in a speedy digitalisation of fashion retail, Swedish retailer H&M is working to adapt and improve its way of working, becoming more flexible, fast and efficient. The company hopes to achieve this by accelerating digital development in its operation, optimising store portfolio and more integration among its sales channels.

Sensing the need, H&M has undertaken some major initiatives to meet new consumer expectations and offer improved customer experience, including customer engagement through technology, customer service initiatives, and product transparency, Sanjay Bakshi wrote in the November 2020 edition of Fibre2Fashion.

Customers in China can now benefit from H&M’s membership programme not only in H&M stores, but in the communication app Wechat as well. Member customers have the privilege to buy now and pay later across channels through its payment solution ‘Pay Later’. It was also launched in Spain and is available in 12 other markets with plans to roll out in more markets.

Among customer service initiatives, H&M now offers ‘Next day’ and ‘Express’ deliveries in 14 of its markets. Various kinds of climate-smart deliveries are also offered in Italy, while Sweden offers climate-smart deliveries to Instabox using fossil-free transport. H&M customers in 30 cities of the Netherlands can opt to receive and return items by a bicycle delivery service, Bakshi mentions in the article.

Additionally, ‘Find-in-store’ option, available in 22 markets, allows H&M customers to easily find on their mobile phones if an item of their choice is available in a store or online. Furthermore, ‘In-store Mode’ in 13 markets enable customers to see on their smartphones which items are in the store they are currently in, as well as online; the ‘Click & Collect’ service is available in 14 markets. H&M customers can also locate and buy products online by scanning a QR code.

For product transparency, H&M has joined forces with the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) and other companies to develop the Higg Index tool, which measures sustainability at the product level. For the first time, customers in select markets were able to see environmental scores of over 7,000 product pages on the company's website. This resulted in more than 7 million views.

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Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RKS)

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