H&M Group adds brand webstores in nine new European markets

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 12, 2020

H&M Group is expanding its basket of brands into new European markets this month with Cos, Weekday, Monki, & Other Stories and Arket adding webstores in nine additional markets across the continent.

It's an important development at a time when physical shops are still closed. But it's also crucial for the post-coronavirus world in which online sales are expected to account for a bigger percentage of total fashion retail than they would have done had the pandemic not happened.

The new markets include Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Croatia that will launch this week (on 14 May). They’ll be followed by Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus on 20 May. Customers can sign up to get access and a special welcome offer, the day before the launch. If they subscribe on the website through the country selector page, they can get access to the VIP shopping day, taking place a day before the grand opening.

“Convenience and accessibility are becoming increasingly important to customers. These new online markets are part of H&M Group’s ambition to make its brands available to more customers globally,” the company said.

The importance of online to the group was made very clear last week when it said that its total sales fell 57% from 1 March, but online sales (operating in 46 of its 51 online markets) rose 32% in the period.