After months of speculations, Sweden-based fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) has started its e-commerce operations in India on March 15, 2018.
The fashion retailer, which has been planning for its online foray into the Indian market for quite some time, has gone for ‘its own’ without getting itself placed on any other e-commerce marketplace.
“India has now become the 45th global market where H&M has started its online stores,” H&M India Country Manager Janne Einola was quoted as saying.
The launch of the online store has come as a boon to the young consumers in Tier II and III cities of India where the brand is yet to have its physical presence. H&M currently operates 29 stores in the country with a few on cards for Mumbai and Mysore.
According to Enola, deliveries would be done at most of the pin codes in India except for a few. A third party has been roped in to take care of the deliveries.
With the launch, consumers in India have got the access to a wide range of chic collections with exclusive ‘online-only’ pieces available all year-round on H&M’s e-store.
Women, men’s, teens, kids, plus-size, maternity wear and a complete range of lingerie and accessories can be shopped at the newly launched e-place.
H&M has tapped the tech aspect as well by introducing a Scan-and-Buy feature to allow customers to buy products online if appropriate size is not available at its physical stores by scanning barcodes with an aim to bring synergies between its offline and online stores.
Markedly, the news of H&M’s online store in India has come after more than five months of Spanish rival Zara’s online store launch in India. The fashion brand is eyeing to fuel its growth further in India through this initiative.
Einola hopes that revenue contribution from the e-commerce retail operations in India would be bigger and the strongest. Currently, online sales contribute 12.5 per cent of overall sales of H&M globally.
Additionally, H&M is planning to get more brands into the Indian fashion market other than its namesake label. The global fashion retailer is now focussing to enter small Indian cities as well; however, the majority of its stores are located in metro cities as of now.
