“The objective here is to make numbers. OK ? » Behind the curtain drawn from the H&M store at Westfield Parly 2, a few minutes before the inauguration of this 1,770 square meter point of sale, Tuesday May 7, Sandrine Ikansha, store director, addresses the 42 employees of her team. “You have the keys to a Ferrari in your hands!” »she proclaims, before cutting the ribbon, alongside Pär Lindbäck, general manager of H&M in France, Belgium and Luxembourg.
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Seven years after pulling the curtain on a store deemed poorly located and rented too expensive, the Swedish brand is returning to this shopping center located in Chesnay-Rocquencourt (Yvelines). She’s not risking much. Located in the heart of western Paris, this center is known for attracting customers with high purchasing power: Apple, Printemps, Sephora and 187 other stores, including Dior Beauty soon, attract 11.4 million people per year. .
In this location occupied by Kiabi, and close to a Zara, H&M is inaugurating a new store concept intended to better serve its customers, which combines online purchasing of clothing and in-store shopping. Electronically opened lockers allow you to collect orders placed on the Web. H&M generates 30% of its sales on the Internet and its application. A battery of self-checkouts is supposed to speed up the payment process. First tested in Antwerp, Belgium, in May 2023, this layout will be fully adopted in around ten other French stores in 2024 and partially in fifty others. According to Mr. Lindbäck, these services are “more convenient”.
Severe restructuring in 2022
The brand’s staff representatives see “especially a way to reduce in-store payroll” by eliminating workstations behind the cash registers and at the order collection counter. “The situation of H&M is in no way comparable to that of clothing brands in great crisis [Pimkie, Naf Naf]. But we must be vigilant about the ongoing cost reductions”assures an elected staff member, recalling that the chain, present in France since 1998, regularly cleans up its fleet of French stores.
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H&M closed several points of sale in Paris, notably on the Champs-Elysées, in January 2022, and boulevard Haussmann, to open another, larger one, rue Lafayette in 2018. At that date, the brand operated 210 points of sale. sale in France. This figure today reaches 169.
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