H&M and Inditex announced their intention to reduce the number of brick-and-mortar stores in favor of online shopping.
The Swedish company H&M and the Spanish company Inditex (owner of the well-known Zara brand) have begun actively closing brick-and-mortar stores, while paying more and more attention to online sales. So, last year, H&M closed 140 outlets at once and announced its intention to reduce the number of stores scheduled to open this year. As for Inditex, the scope is even wider - last year 355 Zara stores were closed at once, with the intention to close 250 more. The number of new stores will also be reviewed.
At the same time, both companies plan to actively open more and more new online stores in various countries. So, Inditex stated about the intention to expand the online presence in countries such as Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Colombia, Kuwait, Oman and the Philippines - it is claimed that this will attract up to 275 million new customers. The Spanish network has also recently acquired domains in Egypt, Israel, Indonesia, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Serbia. Such news is especially interesting against the background of the fact that the Zara brand has always been conservative and preferred to work “the old fashioned way”. But it seems that even very conservative brands are forced to follow the trends of the modern world.
As for H&M, the company is announcing its intention not only to expand its online presence, but also to significantly overhaul its e-commerce platform. Thus, users are waiting for a significant improvement in the ergonomics of the brand's online stores and their filling with more detailed product descriptions with a large number of images. And also H&M works to reduce the delivery time of goods.