net retail[edit]

H&M continued to expand in Europe and began to retail online in 1998 [12] with
the domain hm.com registered 1997, according to data available via Whois.

Westward expansion[edit]
The opening of its first U.S. store on 31 March 2000 on Fifth Avenue in New York City marked the
start of its expansion outside of Europe.[9]

Home furnishings[edit]
In 2008, the company announced in a press release that it would begin selling home furnishings.
[13]
 Initially distributed through the company's online catalog, these home furnishing items are now
sold at H&M Home stores around the world.[14]

Other brands[edit]
Concept stores, including COS, Weekday, Monki, and Cheap Monday, launched following H&M's
expansion in Asia. In 2009 and 2010, brand consultancy Interbrand ranked H&M as the twenty-first
most-valuable global brand.[15] Its worth was estimated at $12 billion to $16 billion. [16][17]

Store openings worldwide[edit]

H&M operated 2,325 stores at the end of 2011. At the end of August 2012, they were operating 304
more stores, bringing the total to 2,629. [18] In September 2013, the retailer opened its 3000th store
in Chengdu, China.[19]

COVID-19[edit]
In October 2020, H&M announced that it was planning to close 5% of its worldwide stores in 2021 as
a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.[20]

Countries H&M operates in (2022)

H&M store at the Pavilions Shopping Centre, Birmingham, UK

H&M Asia flagship store at Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

H&M store at the Chydenia Shopping Centre, Kokkola, Finland

H&M Store at Costanera Center Shopping Center, Santiago, Chile.

Map of H&M stores in the U.S. and southern Canada, as of August 2011.

H&M Melbourne
Withdrawal from Russian market (2022)[edit]
Along with hundreds of other global companies, H&M announced on 2 March 2022, an end to retail
operations of its more than 150 stores in Russia, as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
H&M cited that it stands "with all the people who are suffering" in Ukraine as well as for "the safety of
customers and colleagues" in Russia.[21][22] Having recently expanded including via its Weekday and &
Other Stories formats, Russia was H&M's sixth-biggest market at the time, representing 4% of group
sales in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Supplies[edit]
H&M get their supplies shipped from different areas around the world. Their top 3 locations that ship
their raw materials are: China, Bangladesh, and India. Their retail headquarters is located in
Sweden, where 21 suppliers and factories manufacture H&M's clothing products and accessories.

Models[edit]
Kylie Minogue[edit]
In 2007, H&M and Kylie Minogue launched a swimwear line in Shanghai to celebrate H&M's
presence in Asia.[23]

Lana Del Rey[edit]

Lana Del Rey was the face of H&M's 2012 global summer collection music video, in which she also
sang a cover of "Blue Velvet" as a tribute to filmmaker David Lynch, who she has said impacted her
work.[24]

Beyoncé[edit]
In May 2013 Beyoncé was the face of H&M for her campaign, "Mrs. Carter in H&M," which drew
heavily upon Knowles' personal style. The singer also included the track "Standing on the Sun" from
her fifth studio album as the campaign soundtrack.[25]

Designers[edit]
Karl Lagerfeld[edit]
In November 2004, select stores offered an exclusive collection by fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.
The press reported there were large crowds and that the initial inventories in the larger cities were
sold out within an hour.[26] The clothes were still available, though, in less fashion-sensitive areas until
the company redistributed them to meet demand. [27]

Stella McCartney[edit]
In November 2006, the company launched a collection by Stella McCartney.

Viktor & Rolf[edit]

Also in November 2006, the company launched a collection by avant-garde Dutch designers Viktor &
Rolf.

Madonna[edit]
H&M launched a collaboration designed by pop star Madonna in March 2007.[28]

Roberto Cavalli[edit]
In November 2007, several months after collaborating with Madonna, the company launched a
collection by Italian designer Roberto Cavalli.

Marimekko[edit]
Finnish company Marimekko was chosen as a guest designer in spring 2008.[citation needed]

Comme des Garçons[edit]

H&M partnered with Comme des Garçons, a Japanese fashion label, in the fall of 2008. Products in
the collection included accessories, a unisex fragrance, and clothing for adults and children. [29]

Matthew Williamson[edit]
For spring and summer of 2009, British designer Matthew Williamson created two exclusive ranges
for the company – the first being a collection of women's clothes that were released in select stores.
For the second collection, Williamson ventured into creating menswear for the first time. It featured
swimwear for men and women and was available in all of H&M's stores worldwide. [30]

Jimmy Choo[edit]
On 14 November 2009, the company released a limited-edition diffusion collection by Jimmy
Choo featuring handbags and shoes for men and women, with prices ranging from £30 to £170. The
collection also included clothing designed by Choo, such as garments made of suede and leather,
and was available in 200 stores worldwide, including London's Oxford Circus store.[31]

Sonia Rykiel[edit]
Sonia Rykiel collaborated with the company by designing a ladies knitwear and lingerie range that
was released in select company stores on 5 December 2009.

Lanvin[edit]
French fashion house Lanvin collaborated with H&M to create a new collection, "Lanvin Hearts
H&M," in fall 2010.[32] The collection, designed to make Lanvin clothing more accessible to the
average consumer, featured items that were around 100 euros. Usually Lanvin dresses would cost
hundreds of euros more.[33]

Elin Kling[edit]
For Spring and Summer 2011, the company worked with fashion blogger Elin Kling, whose collection
was only available at select stores.

Versace[edit]
H&M announced a collaboration with Versace in June 2011 that was later released on November
19. Versace also planned a Spring collaboration with the company that would only be available in
countries with online sales. Similar to past collaborations, Versace agreed to let H&M use its name
for a previously agreed-upon sum, without actually having a role in the design process. [34]

Marni[edit]
H&M announced a collaboration with Marni in November 2011. The campaign launched a few
months later in March 2012 and was led by director Sofia Coppola.[citation needed]
Trompe-l'œil printed viscose jersey dress by Maison Martin Margiela for H&M, 2012

Anna Dello Russo[edit]

On 4 October 2012, Vogue Japan editor Anna Dello Russo launched an accessories collection with
H&M as Paris Fashion Week drew to an end. The collection was stocked in 140 H&M stores
worldwide and was also available to purchase online. [35]

Maison Martin Margiela[edit]

On 12 June 2012, H&M confirmed that it would launch a collaboration with avant-garde label Maison
Martin Margiela for a fall rollout. The Maison Martin Margiela collection for H&M hit stores a few
months later on 15 November 2012.

Isabel Marant[edit]
Isabel Marant was a collaboration designer for fall 2013 and, for the first time in her career, made a
few men's pieces to accompany the women's collection. [36] The collection sold out very quickly in
cities across the globe and was heavily anchored in sales online. [37]

Alexander Wang[edit]
During the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California, H&M announced its first
collaboration with an American designer. Alexander Wang was the designer chosen and the
collection was released to a select 250 stores around the world on 6 November 2014.

Balmain[edit]
Balmain was announced as the next collaboration with H&M through Balmain designer Olivier
Rousteing's Instagram page. The collection was released on 5 November 2015. [38] That year's H&M
Christmas campaign was made in collaboration with popstar Katy Perry, who also sang the
commercial soundtrack "'Every Day Is A Holiday". [39]

Kenzo[edit]
In November 2016, H&M released a designer line in collaboration with Kenzo.[40] That year the
company released an annual holiday movie directed by Wes Anderson as part of the company's
Christmas advertising campaign. [41] Titled "Come Together", the short film starred Adrien Brody as a
train conductor who saves Christmas after a blizzard delays the train's arrival and causes the few
passengers to miss part of the holiday.[41][42][43][44]

Zara Larsson[edit]
Swedish singer Zara Larsson designed a "playful, young, empowering and little glamorous"
collection with H&M in February 2017. [45]

Naomi Campbell[edit]
After 20 years, Naomi Campbell came back to collaborate with the company for a global female
empowerment commercial spot in fall 2017. She wore clothes that blurred the line between
masculine and feminine in the campaign's Tokyo spot-video where she lip-synced "Wham Rap
(Enjoy What You Do)" by Wham!.[46]

Jeremy Scott and Moschino[edit]

Designers Jeremy Scott and Moschino collaborated with the brand in April 2018.

Richard Allan[edit]
With the idea of reviving the spirit of the swinging sixties, H&M collaborated with designer Richard
Allan in July 2019.[47]

Sandra Mansour[edit]
The Fleur du Soleil collection, part of H&M's collaboration with Lebanese designer Sandra Mansour,
was released in August 2020 and marked the first time the company had partnered with an Arab
designer.[48]

Simone Rocha[edit]
Irish designer Simone Rocha, daughter of designer John Rocha, was announced as a collaborative
partner in March 2021. Simone is a regular at London Fashion Week and was named ‘Womenswear
Designer of the Year’ at the British Fashion Awards in 2016. Rocha's designs are famed for their
femininity, which is shown in an H&M campaign film shot by Tyler Mitchell. [49]

Showcasing[edit]
The Sims 2[edit]
Working with Maxis in June 2007, H&M created a stuff pack for the game developers' The Sims
2 computer game, H&M Fashion Stuff.[50]

Imagine Fashion[edit]
In March 2011, the brand's clothing was featured in an interactive fashion art film by Imagine
Fashion called Decadent Control, starring Roberto Cavalli, Kirsty Hume, Eva Herzigová and Brad
Kroenig.

Voice Interactive Mirror[edit]

In 2018, the flagship New York City location tried out an in-store "Voice Interactive Mirror" developed
by Microsoft and Ombori.[51] The mirror, designed to have voice and facial recognition, acted as
a personal shopping assistant and also encouraged customers to sign up for newsletters and scan
QR codes.[52] A German CPG news source, Lebensmittelzeitung, concluded that "86% of customers
who took a selfie ended up scanning the QR code and 10% of [customers] also registered for the
newsletter."[53]
 typical supply chain begins with the ecological, biological, and political regulation of natural
resources,[clarification needed] followed by the human extraction of raw material, and includes several
production links (e.g., component construction, assembly, and merging) before moving on to several
layers of storage facilities of ever-decreasing size and increasingly remote geographical locations,
and finally reaching the consumer. At the end of the supply chain, materials and finished products
only flow there because of the customer behaviour at the end of the chain;[6] academics Alan
Harrison and Janet Godsell argue that "supply chain processes should be co-ordinated in order to
focus on end customer buying behaviour", and look for "customer responsiveness" as an indicator
confirming that materials are able to flow "through a sequence of supply chain processes in order to
meet end customer buying behaviour". [7]
Many of the exchanges encountered in the supply chain take place between varied companies that
seek to maximize their revenue within their sphere of interest but may have little or no knowledge or
interest in the remaining players in the supply chain. More recently, the loosely coupled, self-
organizing network of businesses who cooperate in providing product and service offerings has been
called the extended enterprise,[8] and the use of the term "chain" and the linear structure it appears to
represent have been criticised as "harder to relate ... to the way supply networks really operate.[9] A
chain is actually a complex and dynamic supply and demand network. [5]
As part of their efforts to demonstrate ethical practices, many large companies and global brands are
integrating codes of conduct and guidelines into their corporate cultures and management systems.
Through these, corporations are making demands on their suppliers (facilities, farms, subcontracted
services such as cleaning, canteen, security etc.) and verifying, through social audits, that they are
complying with the required standard. A lack of transparency in the supply chain can bar consumers
from knowledge of where their purchases originated and facilitate socially irresponsible practices. In
2018, the Loyola University Chicago's Supply and Value Chain Center found in a survey that 53% of
supply chain professionals considered ethics to be "extremely" important to their organization.
[10]
 Supply-chain managers are under constant scrutiny to secure the best pricing for their resources,
which becomes a difficult task when faced with the inherent lack of transparency. Cost
benchmarking is one effective method for identifying competitive pricing within the industry. This
gives negotiators a solid basis to form their strategy on and drive overall spending down.[citation needed]

Typologies[edit]
Marshall L. Fisher (1977) asks the question in a key article, "Which is the right supply chain for your
product?"[11] Fisher, and also Naylor, Naim and Berry (1999), identify two matching characteristics of
supply chain strategy: a combination of "functional" and "efficient", or a combination of "responsive"
and "innovative" (Harrison and Godsell).[7][12]
Brown et al. refer to supply chains as either "loosely coupled" or "tightly coupled":
Cutting-edge companies are swapping their tightly coupled processes for loosely coupled ones,
making themselves not only more flexible but also more profitable.[13]
These ideas refer to two polar models of collaboration: tightly coupled, or "hard-wired", also known
as "linked", collaboration represents a close relationship between a buyer and supplier within the
chain, whereas a loosely-coupled link relates to low interdependency between buyer and seller and
therefore greater flexibility.[14] The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply's professional
guidance suggests that the aim of a tightly coupled relationship is to reduce inventory and
avoid stock-outs.[14]

Modeling[edit]

A diagram of a supply chain. The black arrow represents the flow of materials and information, and the gray
arrow represents the flow of information and backhauls. The elements are (a) the initial supplier (vendor or
plant), (b) a supplier, (c) a manufacturer (production), (d) a customer, and (e) the final customer.

There are a variety of supply-chain models, which address both the upstream and downstream
elements of supply-chain management (SCM). The SCOR (Supply-Chain Operations Reference)
model, developed by a consortium of industry and the non-profit Supply Chain Council (now part
of APICS) became the cross-industry de facto standard defining the scope of supply-chain
management. SCOR measures total supply-chain performance. It is a process reference model for
supply-chain management, spanning from the supplier's supplier to the customer's customer. [15] It
includes delivery and order fulfillment performance, production flexibility, warranty and returns
processing costs, inventory and asset turns, and other factors in evaluating the overall effective
performance of a supply chain.[16]
The supply chain can be split into different segments, after which stage in the supply chain process it
considers. The earlier stages of a supply chain, such as raw material processing
and manufacturing determine their break-even point by considering production costs, relative to
market price. The later stages of a supply chain, such as wholesale and retail determine their break-
even point by considering transaction costs, relative to market price. Additionally, there are financial
costs associated with all the stages of a supply chain model. [citation needed]
The Global Supply Chain Forum has introduced another supply chain model. [17] This framework is
built on eight key business processes that are both cross-functional and cross-firm in nature. Each
process is managed by a cross-functional team including representatives from logistics, production,
purchasing, finance, marketing, and research and development. While each process interfaces with
key customers and suppliers, the processes of customer relationship management and supplier
relationship management form the critical linkages in the supply chain.
The American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) Process Classification Framework (PCF) SM
is a high-level, industry-neutral enterprise process model that allows organizations to see their
business processes from a cross-industry viewpoint. The PCF was developed by APQC and its
member organizations as an open standard to facilitate improvement through process management
and benchmarking, regardless of industry, size, or geography. The PCF organizes operating and
management processes into 12 enterprise-level categories, including process groups, and over
1,000 processes and associated activities.[citation needed]
In the developing country public health setting, John Snow, Inc. has developed the JSI Framework
for Integrated Supply Chain Management in Public Health, which draws from commercial sector best
practices to solve problems in public health supply chains. [18]

Mapping[edit]
Similarly, supply chain mapping involves documenting information regarding all participants in an
organisation's supply chain and assembling the information as a global map of the organisation's
supply network.[19]

Management[edit]
Main article: Supply-chain management

A German paper factory receives its daily supply of 75 tons of recyclable paper as its raw material.

In the 1980s, the term supply-chain management (SCM) was developed to express the need to
integrate the key business processes, from end user through original suppliers. [20] Original suppliers
are those that provide products, services, and information that add value for customers and other
stakeholders. The basic idea behind SCM is that companies and corporations involve themselves in
a supply chain by exchanging information about market demand, distribution capacity and
production capabilities. Keith Oliver, a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, is credited with the term's
invention after using it in an interview for the Financial Times in 1982.[21][22][23] The term was used
earlier by Alizamir et al. in 1981. [24]
If all relevant information is accessible to any relevant company, every company in the supply chain
has the ability to help optimize the entire supply chain rather than to sub-optimize based on local
optimization. This will lead to better-planned overall production and distribution, which can cut costs
and give a more attractive final product, leading to better sales and better overall results for the
companies involved. This is one form of vertical integration. Yet, it has been shown that the motives
for and performance efficacy of vertical integration differ by global region. [25]
Incorporating SCM successfully leads to a new kind of competition on the global market, where
competition is no longer of the company-versus-company form but rather takes on a supply-chain-
versus-supply-chain form.[citation needed]
Many electronics manufacturers of Guangdong and beyond rely on the supply of parts from numerous
component shops in Shenzhen.

The primary objective of SCM is to fulfill customer demands through the most efficient use of
resources, including distribution capacity, inventory, and labor. In theory, a supply chain seeks to
match demand with supply and do so with minimal inventory. Various aspects of optimizing the
supply chain include liaising with suppliers to eliminate bottlenecks; sourcing strategically to strike a
balance between lowest material cost and transportation, implementing just-in-time techniques to
optimize manufacturing flow; maintaining the right mix and location of factories and warehouses to
serve customer markets; and using location allocation, vehicle routing analysis, dynamic
programming, and traditional logistics optimization to maximize the efficiency of distribution.
The term "logistics" applies to activities within one company or organization involving product
distribution, whereas "supply chain" additionally encompasses manufacturing and procurement, and
therefore has a much broader focus as it involves multiple enterprises (including suppliers,
manufacturers, and retailers) working together to meet a customer need for a product or service. [26]
Starting in the 1990s, several companies chose to outsource the logistics aspect of supply-chain
management by partnering with a third-party logistics provider (3PL). Companies also outsource
production to contract manufacturers.[27] Technology companies have risen to meet the demand to
help manage these complex systems. Cloud-based SCM technologies are at the forefront of next-
generation supply chains due to their impact on optimization of time, resources, and inventory
visibility.[28] Cloud technologies facilitate work being processed offline from a mobile app which solves
the common issue of inventory residing in areas with no online coverage or connectivity. [29]

Resilience[edit]
Supply chain resilience is "the capacity of a supply chain to persist, adapt, or transform in the face of
change".[30] For a long time, the interpretation of resilience in the sense of engineering resilience (=
robustness[31]) prevailed in supply chain management, leading to the notion of persistence.[30] A
popular implementation of this idea is given by measuring the time-to-survive and the time-to-
recover of the supply chain, allowing identification of weak points in the system. [32] More recently, the
interpretations of resilience in the sense of ecological resilience and social–ecological
resilience have led to the notions of adaptation and transformation, respectively.[30] A supply chain is
thus interpreted as a social-ecological system that – similar to an ecosystem (e.g. forest) – is able to
constantly adapt to external environmental conditions and – through the presence of social actors
and their ability to foresight – also to transform itself into a fundamentally new system. [33] This leads
to a panarchical interpretation of a supply chain, embedding it into a system of systems, allowing to
analyze the interactions of the supply chain with systems that operate at other levels (e.g. society,
political economy, planet Earth).[33] For example, these three components of resilience can be
discussed for the 2021 Suez Canal obstruction, when a ship blocked the canal for several days.
[34]
 Persistence means to "bounce back"; in our example it is about removing the ship as quickly as
possible to allow "normal" operations. Adaptation means to accept that the system has reached to a
"new normal" state and to act accordingly; here, this can be implemented by redirecting ships
around the African cape or use alternative modes of transport. Finally, transformation means to
question the assumptions of globalization, outsourcing, and linear supply chains and to envision
alternatives; in this example this could lead to local and circular supply chains.
Through the increasing digitization of the supply chain and the risk of manipulation of the information
an executive receives, you have to authenticate data in some way. With help
comes blockchain technology through which it is possible to secure data. How it works:
Manufacturers use blockchain technology, they can access the transaction log and check every step
of the product journey from the supplier, through the supply chain, to the end user.

Role of the internet[edit]

On the internet, customers can directly contact the distributors. This has reduced the length of the
chain to some extent by cutting down on middlemen. Some of the benefits are cost reduction and
greater collaboration.[35] Social media now plays an important role in holding corporations
accountable due to rapid spread of information that can sway purchasing decisions. [10] Internet has
allowed all types of transactions (economic and social) to be performed online, which in turn has
enabled real-time digital capture of data; the use of big data analytics to drive supply chains has
been reviewed in recent papers by Sanders and others.[36][37]

Social responsibility[edit]
Incidents like the 2013 Savar building collapse with more than 1,100 victims have led to widespread
discussions about corporate social responsibility across global supply chains. Wieland and Handfield
(2013) suggest that companies need to audit products and suppliers and that supplier auditing
needs to go beyond direct relationships with first-tier suppliers (those who supply the main customer
directly). They also demonstrate that visibility needs to be improved if the supply cannot be directly
controlled and that smart and electronic technologies play a key role to improve visibility. Finally,
they highlight that collaboration with local partners, across the industry and with universities is crucial
to successfully manage social responsibility in supply chains.[38] This incident also highlights the need
to improve workers safety standards in organizations. Hoi and Lin (2012) note that corporate social
responsibility can influence the enacting of policies that can improve occupational safety and health
management in organizations. In fact, international organizations with presence in other nations
have a responsibility to ensure that workers are well protected by policies in an organization to avoid
safety related incidents.[39]