The famous clothing giant Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) plans to close more stores as the sales fell below expectations in the fourth quarter as customers are increasingly prefer to shop online.
H&M CEO Karl-Johan Persson said in a statement that the company’s “online sales and sales of the group’s other brands continued to develop well” but that physical stores “were negatively affected by a continued challenging market situation with reduced footfall to stores due to the ongoing shift in the industry”.
“In order to respond even quicker to customers’ fast-changing behaviour the company’s ongoing transformation journey is being accelerated,” Persson said.
“This includes continued integration of the physical and digital stores, and intensifying the optimisation of the H&M brand’s store portfolio — leading to more store closures and fewer openings,” he added.
The group did not specify exactly how many stores would be closed and where. However the store manager announced earlier that it would open physical stores around the world to compensate for the downturn.
