Company will have 34 ecommerce markets globally by year’s end.
H&M has announced plans to aggressively expand both its physical stores worldwide and its ecommerce markets by the end of 2016. The fashion retailer aims to open 425 stores by November and even more beyond that, and CEO Karl-Johan Persson told Bloomberg in a phone interview that “I think we will go to 7,000, 8,000 stores plus and beyond. We’re not stressed to reach a certain size or to be number one but its still expansion ahead of us.”
The retailer also reported “very profitable” web sales, and said that it plans to expand its e-commerce now available in seven more countries, adding 11 more, for a total of 34 markets by year’s end. The company doesn’t report web sales separately.
The news came as the retailer reported quarterly earnings. H&M's net profit slid 30 percent, hit hard by a strong dollar that made its Asia-sourced apparel more expensive to produce and a warm winter that left much apparel on racks, forcing discounts. First quarter sales increased to 43.7 billion kronor (excluding value-added tax), from 40.3 billion kronor.
H&M's report also said that it’s benefiting from having a stable of brands, and that it plans to introduce more lines and Persson told Bloomberg that they have a new chain in the process of being released later this year. “It will be a free-standing brand,” according to Persson and the first stores will open in 2017.
“Our new brands—COS, & Other Stories, Monki, Weekday och Cheap Monday—represent an increasingly important part of the group and we are looking forward to launching more new brands further ahead,” Persson said in a statement.
Persson told Bloomberg that the company is unfazed by that competition, or by Amazon’s recent moves into apparel.
“I’m a huge admirer of Amazon,” Persson asserted. “H&M and many other companies will bring something different to the fashion world, and I think we can fare well, as we have shown.”
According to the report, the company also is increasing its commitment to sustainability, something that could be challenged by such a massive increase in physical stores and e-commerce.
