Hennes & Mauritz, the Swedish company behind H&M, Monki and Weekday, and Spain-based Inditex (owner of Zara and Massimo Dutti) are both trimming their network of physical stores and adding more resources into online sales.
After closing about 140 stores last year, H&M has revised down its plans for store openings this year from a net 175 worldwide to 130. The brand is cutting its capacity in Europe, with a net reduction in H&M brand stores across the continent this year.
Zara parent Inditex, meanwhile, closed 355 stores last year. It plans to close another 250, while opening 300 this year.The two companies’ plans for online sales this year are striking. Inditex has already opened online stores this year in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Israel, Serbia, and Indonesia (serving a combined population of nearly 500 million), and it plans to have stores up and running for its fall/winter collections in South Africa, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrein, Oman, Jordan, Colombia, Philippines and Ukraine.
H&M, meanwhile, is promising big upgrades to its online store, including H&M’s improved navigation and product presentation and shorter delivery times (the latter in particular being an area where it has compared unfavorably to online-only rivals such as Zalando, Boohoo, and, of course, Amazon.com). It also promises more flexibility in payment, building on its investment in fintech unicorn Klarna last year.
