According to Fashion Business News, on June 24, the H&M store located at No. 651 Huaihai Middle Road, Shanghai, was officially closed. This was also the first store opened by H&M in 2006 when it entered the Chinese market.
In addition, in May last year, H&M Shanghai Nanjing West Road flagship store also announced the closure of the store.
In fact, affected by the Xinjiang cotton incident, H&M began to close stores in China intensively in the second half of last year.
According to the financial report, as of the end of last year, H&M had only 445 stores in mainland China, which means that 60 stores have been closed throughout 2021, accounting for 12% of the total stores. This year, H&M has completely retreated from first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen to sinking markets, closing more than 40 stores in the first quarter alone.
According to the second quarter results released by H&M, sales during the period surged 75% year-on-year to 46.509 billion Swedish kronor, still lower than the 57.4 billion Swedish kronor in the second quarter of 2019. This was mainly due to the improvement of the brand’s performance in Europe and the United States. The strong rebound offset the downturn in the Russian and Chinese markets.
The lease of H&M Nanjing West Road flagship store has expired and the store has been closed. The store has been acquired by local down jacket brand Bosideng.
According to Qichacha, from 2017 to 2022, H&M’s main affiliated company Haynes Morris (Shanghai) Commercial Co., Ltd. alone has received a total of 32 administrative penalties, most of which were caused by quality problems and fines. The total amount reached 2.17 million yuan.
In January this year, the topic of H&M being fined RMB 130,000 for inferior clothing and sunglasses also became a hot topic. Many netizens left messages saying that the quality of H&M’s clothing was worrying. It deformed and shrunk after just a few washes. At the same price, it was far better. s Choice.
In addition to the H&M brand, another fast fashion brand under the group that focuses on young people and affordable prices is also facing a similar dilemma.
H&M’s affordable brand Monki’s Tmall flagship store officially closed on April 1, after a month of clearance activity. Monki entered the Chinese market in 2015 and opened its first store in Dalian, and subsequently opened physical stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Xi’an and other places. The brand also withdrew from the Japanese market a few years ago. Some analysts said this was related to the fact that the brand has not yet had a hit product and its product positioning is unclear.
Analysts believe that Monki, which focuses on cost-effective and high-SKU models, should have aimed at the sinking market and followed the trend of sinking fast fashion consumption at that time. However, after the successful opening of the first store in Dalian, Monki’s store opening strategy began to deviate. Since then, most of the newly opened stores have been concentrated in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and new first-tier cities.
At the same time, the establishment of Monki’s online sales channels was not smooth, and it was not until 2016 that it successfully entered Tmall. A series of measures have revealed H&M Group’s slow response in operation and expansion strategies and lack of localized operation planning.
It is a done deal that the development of fast fashion brands will be hindered. However, H&M, which has a rich brand matrix, is obviously not willing to let go of the huge Chinese market. H&M Group is placing its hope on the “Plan B” in hand, hoping to make a comeback through its mid-to-high-end brands.
</p
