Ricky Cheers
H&M in India
In 2015, H&M opened its first store in India. The emerging market of India was an obvious choice for them. The Swedish retailer is actually behind its competitors of taking advantage of the Indian market. H&M opened its first store in 1947. It was located in Västerås, Sweden and specialized in only women’s clothing. The store was just called Hennes then. Hennes means “hers” in Swedish. In 1964, Hennes opened its first store outside of Sweden, in Norway. In 1968, the company’s founder Erling Persson bought a hunting apparel retailer called Mauritz Widforss. Soon they would start to sell men’s and children's clothing. The name was changed to Hennes and Mauritz and today we have H&M. After the first store opened outside of Sweden in 1964, H&M started to expand more into Europe. Next was Denmark, Switzerland, Germany and the United Kingdom. In 1976, the first store outside of Scandinavia was opened in London. In 1998, online shopping became available for H&M. The company did not expand outside of Europe until 2000, when it came to the U.S. Today there are over 400 stores in the U.S. alone. Worldwide there are over 3,700 stores in 61 different countries and it is the second largest global retailer. H&M specializes in “fast fashion”. Fast fashion is a term used by fashion retailers to express that designs move from the catwalk quickly in order to capture current fashion trends. Fast fashion clothing collections are based on the most recent fashion trends presented at in both the spring and the fall Fashion Weeks of every year. This clothing is made affordable so that mainstream consumers can enjoy it. H&M has a very strong understanding of its target market. Its market is looking for low priced high fashion. The company knows what mainstream consumers want. It has a strong following from women. Particularly those in younger age groups, who make up the majority of its customers. H&M stays popular by selling a broad range of fashionable collections which are renewed frequently, offering affordable prices, and by maintaining a strong presence in prime shopping locations. H&M’s growth target is to increase the number of stores by 10 to 15 percent per year, and at the same time increase sales in comparable units. Global expansions includes H&M as well as its own brands COS, Monki, Weekday, Cheap Monday, & Other Stories, and H&M Home. The strong expansion will continue into 2015 with a planned 400 new stores. Most new stores in 2015 are planned to open in China and the US. There are also still opportunities for other emerging markets. The size of India’s emerging middle class and growing economy was attractive to H&M. In 2013, 224 million Indians were considered middle class. This a fourth of the population of 1.2 billion. The Indian consumer market is growing and is expected to quadruple from 2005 to 2025, according to McKinsey Global Institute. The World Bank forecast named India the fastest growing economy worldwide. Its growth has surpassed China for the first time since 1990. There is a big demand in India for H&M’s fast fashion. In fact, its competitors were already there. The Spanish fast fashion outlet, Zara opened up in India in 2010. Another competitor, Gap also entered India earlier in 2015. These companies want to be a part of India’s 41 billion dollar apparel market and now H&M is joining. A challenge that H&M is going to face in India is the lack of infrastructure. According to their website, “Our stores should always be in the best locations for business. By leasing store premises instead of owning them we remain flexible in a constantly evolving retail landscape, and can make sure we are represented in the most attractive streets and shopping centers in all our markets.” The company really wants to open their stores in attractive areas. Quality retail space is limited in India and this is an obstacle that H&M will have to overcome. India represents a great market for H&M. It is likely that they will see great success there. The growing middle class of India is a large market and there are plenty of opportunities for H&M to grab a big part of this market.

Sources http://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/global-currents/hms-next-target-the-indian-middle-class Hm.com http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2015/10/01/a-sneak-peek-into-hms-first-store-in-india/ http://qz.com/419458/hm-is-finally-opening-its-first-store-in-india/ http://qz.com/262152/uniqlo-gap-and-hm-are-lining-up-to-sell-but-india-is-short-on-one-critical-element/