Late Wednesday night, H&M made an announcement that’s been a long time coming: customers in the US can now shop online – which means shopping the brand’s upcoming Isabel Marant collaboration is going to be that much easier. The much anticipated collection will officially be the first of H&M’s collaborations to be sold online in the US.
“It’s finally here!” the Swedish retailer wrote in a Facebook post. “Our US online store is officially open in all 50 states. Great fashion is now just a click away!” Around the same time, the brand’s US Twitter account asked its followers, “Who’s ready to shop online?”
But none of that matters now: The “Choose Region” page that greets the site’s users now features a little shopping bag next to the link for the US site. The United States joins Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden (of course), and the United Kingdom on the list of countries that can shop H&M’s website.
The initiative is highly anticipated and follows successive delays. But retail experts say H&M may struggle to make the kind of profits from U.S. e-commerce enjoyed by pricier rivals.
H&M has prospered in the United States without a big online presence and is mindful of the likely impact on profit margins of the high shipping and return costs associated with such a vast country.
However, with more and more shoppers buying clothes from home, the Swedish firm is speeding up its online roll-out to capture a slice of the growing market.
H&M has grown fast in recent years in the U.S., its second-biggest market, but has twice pulled back from announced dates for the online launch, blaming unexpected complexities in setting up an operation well-integrated with its stores.
Meanwhile, its main rival Inditex and others such as online e-store ASOS have expanded in the market, while Amazon (AMZN) is pushing further into apparel after eBay (EBAY) prospered with its fashion offering.
“You don’t want to lose out on being the port of call for younger shoppers. So H&M should really get in there,” Planet Retail consultant Isabel Cavill said.
Apparel has become one of the fastest-growing online retail segments. H&M has e-stores in eight European countries and says they are now as profitable as its bricks-and-mortar shops.
In North America, a quarter of clothing sales will take place on the Internet in 2030, up from 7 percent in 2011, Goldman Sachs (GS) predicts. Researcher Euromonitor International sees the U.S. online apparel market more than doubling in a decade to $41 billion in 2017.
“Generations of shoppers are growing up for whom the multi-channel is a basic expectation,” said Kantar Retail consultant Bryan Roberts.
Mind the Returns
H&M has been struggling to work out a viable logistics model in the country, where many shoppers expect free deliveries.
“H&M is low-price, quite low-margin and makes it work by selling very high volumes. An issue with that is very high costs for shipping and, most significantly, returns. It’s a particular problem in the U.S.,” Conlumino consultant Neil Saunders said.
Up to half of fashion items sold online are returned. At H&M, a shopper may well buy up to three times as many items than at Zara or ASOS. Analysts place average prices at Zara at least 40 percent above H&M’s, with ASOS in between.
H&M’s U.S. online store offers free shipping but charges for returns. Items bought online cannot be returned in stores.
“I’m particularly surprised by the lack of multichannel. …read more
Neither the threat of arrest nor punishment may significantly deter Mexicans from trying to enter the United States illegally, according to a new study in the August issue of the American Sociological Review. …read more
Social games giant Zynga has sued the makers of a ‘casual sex app’ called Bang with Friends, claiming the title infringes on its popular “with friends” trademark.
According to Bloomberg, Zynga filed the complaint yesterday against the makers of the app, which seeks to connect anonymous Facebook users who are “down to bang.” The complaint seeks a court order which would bar the company from using the name in relation to any social media apps within the United States.
“Zynga filed a lawsuit to stop blatant infringement of its valuable ‘With Friends’ brand,” said Zynga’s deputy general counsel Renee Lawson in a statement. “Zynga is compelled to file suit to prevent further consumer confusion and protect its intellectual property rights against infringement.”
Mexico will detain Sandra Avila Beltran, known as the “Queen of the Pacific” for her links to the drug trade, after the United States deports her, an official said Wednesday. …read more
For all of you United States citizens you should probably be careful what kinds of hand signals you use while abroad.All of you living outside the U.S. is this pretty accurate?
A study recently commissioned by examined the impact of Israel’s renowned technology industry on the country’s overall economy. The results – shocking to many – should serve as a mind-opener to both entrepreneurs and policymakers in the United States and around the globe. …read more
A massive campaign must be launched to de-develop the United States. De-development means bringing our economic system into line with the realities of ecology and the world resource situation. Read More: Kathleen Marquardt — How Your Local officials are using stealth to Implement Agenda 21 and ICLEI, Part 2.
Starbucks announced that it is dropping AT&T, and instead partnering with Google to provide the free Wi-Fi networks offered in its coffee shops. The new network will be about 10 times faster, and will make Starbucks an even more popular “office” destination for nomadic business users.
The transition from Google to AT&T won’t happen overnight. Starbucks plans to start over the next month with the busiest locations (busiest meaning the ones with the highest Wi-Fi usage, not the ones that sell the most coffee necessarily). Starbucks predicts it will take about 18 months, though, to roll out Google Wi-Fi to all 7,000 stores across the United States.
This is huge news for business users. Remote workers, traveling road warriors, and small and medium business entrepreneurs who don’t have the budget for a “real” office have long set up shop at Starbucks. The combination of cozy seating, available power outlets, free Wi-Fi, and a steady supply of caffeine make it virtually ideal. You can walk into just about any Starbucks and find a handful of customers who have set up shop like they live there.
You can find a Starbucks almost anywhere. In a metropolitan area, you’re likely to trip over one every 300 yards or so. Having free Wi-Fi at Starbucks is convenient, but the slower network speed limits what you can get done. It’s great for checking email, or doing a little Web surfing, but trying to engage in a Skype call, or a Lync video conference would be unwise. The choppy audio, or pixelated, buffering video would be more frustrating than its worth.
Noted American terrorist and left-wing radical Bill Ayers is among the signatories of a letter calling on the United Nations to probe the closing of 49 Chicago elementary schools based on claims that it is causing massive human rights violations.
The “letter of allegation” is 24 pages long and contains 17 footnotes.
The Midwest Coalition for Human Rights sent the missive to the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland this week.
The Coalition is a network of over 50 organizations united to fight “serious human rights violations occurring in the United States.”
A number of individuals and organizations sponsored the letter. In addition to Ayers, others signers of the letter include four people associated with Action Now, an Illinois community-organizing group that split off from ACORN just before it dissolved because of financial problems and scandals.
Noted American terrorist and left-wing radical Bill Ayers is among the signatories of a letter calling on the United Nations to probe the closing of 49 Chicago elementary schools based on claims that it is causing massive human rights violations.
The “letter of allegation” is 24 pages long and contains 17 footnotes.
The Midwest Coalition for Human Rights sent the missive to the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland this week.
The Coalition is a network of over 50 organizations united to fight “serious human rights violations occurring in the United States.”
A number of individuals and organizations sponsored the letter. In addition to Ayers, others signers of the letter include four people associated with Action Now, an Illinois community-organizing group that split off from ACORN just before it dissolved because of financial problems and scandals.
FBI officials reportedly tried to entice the father of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden to fly to Moscow to persuade his son to return to the United States, but the effort ultimately collapsed when a way for the two to speak once together in Russia could not be established. …read more
Diageo, the world’s biggest producer of alcoholic drinks, said Wednesday that annual net profits rallied by almost a third, lifted by strength in the United States and emerging markets. …read more
Rep. Jim Moran, R-Va., toured Camp 7, the top-security facility that holds more than a dozen “high-value” prisoners, including five men charged with plotting the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, with a congressional delegation last week. …read more
The HD remake of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker coming to Wii U later this year will be priced at $49.99 in the United States and may include a new difficulty mode, according to a listing for the game on Amazon.
Wind Waker HD’s $49.99 price tag is $10 lower than the $59.99 price currently listed on the websites for retailers like GameStop and Best Buy. It’s also $10 lower than the launch price of many of Nintendo’s other Wii U titles, including New Super Mario Bros. U and Pikmin 3.
A lower price for an HD re-release might make sense on the surface, but there are indications more effort is going into Wind Waker HD than previously indicated.
The Quartet of Mideast mediators — the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia — is welcoming the “courageous decision” of the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to begin final status negotiations aimed at a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict. …read more
Drone surveillance in the United States does not require a warrant, but the practice remains limited, the FBI told Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., in a letter after he placed a hold on James Comey’s nomination to be the new FBI director. Read More: FBI to Rand Paul: Domestic drone surveillance doesn’t require a warrant | […]
The success of Secretary of State John Kerry in leading Israelis and Palestinians to resume negotiations is presenting the United States with an immense challenge. Read More: The New Mideast Talks – Much Risk, Little Hope, but Still We Must Try – NYTimes.com.
After over a dozen years of legal and regulatory battles, the largest seawater desalination plant in the United States is under construction and will use a technology that recovers and re-uses energy that would otherwise go to waste. …read more
