The move comes as demand for home-related products has seen an uptick in the aftermath of the pandemic. H&M Home operates over 350 shop-in-shops and 27 standalone stores across the world, with physical presence in 52 markets. H&M Home, launched online in 2009, offers furniture, bedlinen, dinnerware, textiles, furniture and lighting.
“We are going to launch it online and this will be in spring. So, it will be H&M.com launching at first as well as through the marketplace Myntra but at the same time we are planning to launch shop-in-shop. That will be a bit later depending on the situation but the plan will be that it will launch between spring, late spring in our store in Vasant Kunj,” Yanira Ramirez, country sales manager, H&M India, told Mint in an interview.
Ramirez said the retailer has not yet firmed up plans to open up stand-alone H&M Home stores in India. “At this moment we are going to be focusing on shop-in-shop. We need to see how our customers are reacting,” she said.
Ramirez said the brand will sell the full range it offers globally, including products for living room, bathroom, bedroom as well as dining and kids.
The range will be priced starting ₹149 going up to ₹7,999. Meanwhile, 30% of the products sold here will be sourced locally.
H&M opened its first store in India in 2015 under the foreign direct investment route for single brand retailers. The brand currently operates 48 stores here. In 2018, it debuted online commerce through its own local website and app. In 2019 it struck a partnership with Flipkart-owned online fashion retailer Myntra to sell its fashion wear online.
Ramirez said the retailer is happy with online sales in India, but declined to share numbers. “At the same time though, I can tell you that the stores have performed very well even though we have had less footfall,” she said.
For the year ended 31 March 2021, the retailer reported an 11% fall in sales as the pandemic hit demand for fashion and occasion wear. It clocked ₹1,402 crore in sales during the period.
Ramirez said the retailer is seeing higher conversions despite lower footfalls.
“Obviously restrictions are being lifted, being lifted every day and still we need to wait for the rest of that over the country but again we are very positive for the months to come,” she told Mint in an interview. Ramirez declined to share future store opening projections.
The uncertainty cast by the pandemic has prompted retailers to tread with caution. Restrictions apart, the pandemic has also delayed the inflow of fresh real estate, especially in malls.
The retailer will continue to strengthen its omni-channel offerings, said Ramirez. “There are a series of external factors that we need to consider in order to open any stores but part of our strategy is to open physical stores and India is a super important market for us,” she said.
Globally, the H&M group has brands such as H&M and H&M HOME, COS, Weekday, Monki, apart from & Other Stories. The retailer keeps evaluating opportunities for expansion of these brands in the Indian market.
