H&M, a Swedish fashion retailer, finally launched its own e-commerce site August 1. It announced the opening of its e-store through Twitter and Facebook to around 17 million followers.
H&M landed on American shores 13 years ago and now has 268 locations nationwide. It started courting e-commerce in 2011 when it sold select items of its Fall collection through Elle's website.
However, its entry into the online commerce scene came after about 3 years Zara was launched online. Zara, part of its rival Inditex, clearly has a head start. However, H&M could still take a piece of the pie.
According to Forrester Research, the US will see an expected e-commerce revenue of US$262 billion this year. This was an increase from 2012's US$231 billion. For retailers in the US, sales from e-commerce accounted for 8% of their total sales. This was expected to overtake sales from physical stores in the next 5 years. The online sales will increase to US$370 billion in 2017.
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