Swedish retailer H&M is working to adapt and improve its way of working, becoming more flexible, fast and efficient. Understanding that the future lies in a prompt digitalization of fashion retail, the apparel giant hopes to attain this by fast-tracking digital development in its operation, optimizing store portfolio and more integration among its sales channels.
Precepting the need, H&M has started some key initiatives to meet new consumer outlooks and offer better client experience, including customer engagement through technology, customer service initiatives, and product transparency.
Clients in China can now profit from H&M’s membership program not only in H&M stores, but in the communication app WeChat as well. Member clients have the pleasure to purchase now and pay later across channels through its payment solution ‘Pay Later’. H&M launched in Spain and is available in 12 other marketplaces with plans to roll out in more markets.
Amongst customer service initiatives, H&M now bids ‘Next day’ and ‘Express’ deliveries in 14 of its markets. Numerous 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 choose to receive and return items by a bicycle delivery service.
Moreover, ‘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. Also, ‘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.
