H&M, founded as a ladieswear store in 1947 by Erling Persson in Västerås, Sweden, is now a global fashion brand. It sells through about 4,400 stores in 66 markets, most recently including Ecuador and Kosovo and online to 77 markets, including Columbia and Kazakhstan.
It is part of the €19.5bn-turnover H&M Group, led by CEO Helena Helmersson with a strategy of doubling sales and boosting profitability by 2030 while reducing its carbon footprint by 56%, compared to 2019 levels. H&M is a Leading retailer in the RetailX Top1000 Europe report.
Its sustainability strategy is prominent on a website that includes details of its targets, including using 100% renewable energy by 2023 and using 84% recycled or sustainably sourced materials to make its products.
It has regular updates on its progress. On its website, shoppers can also find out how to care for clothing and remake it into other items at the end of its life. On its product page, shoppers can see which suppliers made each item, along with what materials they used.
The brand puts an emphasis on understanding its customers on its website. It encourages shoppers to sign up to its loyalty club for a 10% discount on their first order, along with free collection, returns and delivery, the latter when they spend more than £30 in the UK, or SEK300 in Sweden.
Its mobile-friendly customer experience makes it easy for shoppers to find the products they want to buy, with dropdown search suggestions, navigational filters and recommendations such as ‘trending right now, ‘style with’ and ‘others also bought’.
Once found, they can see a choice of zoomable images, check instore stock, look at a choice of zoomable images, add to a wishlist for later or pay using methods including Klarna, PayPal and Apple Pay.
This feature originally appeared in the RetailX Top1000 Europe report. Download this comprehensive annual report in full here.
