H&M reinvents itself in the heart of European retail

H&M reinvents itself in London. The Swedish fashion distribution company, second by revenue, is set to relaunch its store in Spring in Oxford Street which temporarily closed its doors last august for refit motives. In what used to be the store’s window display staging mannequins and new collections, now showcases young models in H&M’s clothing accompanied by a message that reads “exciting new shopping experience reopping spring 2020”.

With London being the tenth hottest retail city, according to Hot Retail Cities, the city registers a renting of 1,744 per square foot in its main street in Zone A, the sector corresponding to where Oxford street is situated, according to Cushman&Wakefield. Despite Brexit events the Office for National Statistics published that the UK experienced a 1% growth in fashion sales in the month of January of this year, showing strengthening signs for the country.

H&M to relaunch store in Sring in Oxford Street

This will not be the first relaunch store from the company’s part, Hammersmith’s (London) store underwent the same process in 2018. It tested innovative approaches in Kings Mall such as the garment repair service dubbed Take Care, along with interactive fitting rooms.  

H&M runs the course of innovation. The global heavyweight has been enhancing the concept of its stores through trial and error in the past years, from the clothing rental concept to cafés, the Swedish group is on the pursuit of the ever-changing consumer and the notion of ‘glocal’, which aims to mirror and incorporate locals’ habits within the company’s structures. 

Last year in November a transformation took place which was the renovation of the company’s flagship store in Stockholm, its home market. The company published that the flagship store was the first of the chain that allowed fashion fans to rent garments which did not exclude that of bridal dresses. The refitted store also offers garment repairs, a beauty bar, and a coffee trolley

Another innovation took place in Germany. The company opened its first ‘hyper-local’ in Berlin’s creative Mitte Garden District, which occupied the space of 300 sqm, its smallest store by far. The store offers and range of curated womenswear, vintage pieces, selected external brands, and a showroom for customers. The space projected to also offer lectures, fashion talks, and yoga classes for its customers.  The downsizing and adaptation to the local to a specific neighborhood is part of the H&M revamping strategy.

“We still believe in physical stores, we want to make them more inspiring and easier to shop in, so we are running tests to make the stores more attractive,” said Karl-Johan Persson, former CEO of the company. H&M will open about 200 stores this year, the majority in emerging markets (it opened a store in Tunisia in October 2019); however, it also plans on closing about 175 stores the European and North American Market. The H&M group ended 2019 with a revenue of 232 billion of krona (34 billion dollars), 11% more than the preview year. It is the highest growth since 2015, The profit rose 6%.