H&M has a vision for the store of the future, and it's like nothing else we've seen from the brand

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H&M has a vision for the store of the future, and it's like nothing else we've seen from the brand

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H&M

Shutterstock/spatuletail

A typical H&M store.

  • H&M has a concept store in Sweden that offers a curated selection of clothing and accessories.
  • This store is the antithesis of H&M's standard locations. It speaks to the direction in which brick-and-mortar shopping is headed, casting doubt on whether H&M in its original form is still viable in the current market.
  • We took a look around the store via Instagram. 

H&M's vision for the store of the future is minimalist, curated, and pricey - everything that the original H&M is not.

Its new concept store, which was unveiled in November 2017 in one of its existing locations in Sweden, is the antithesis of a typical H&M store. Shoppers come in to shop its limited collection of clothing, have a coffee in the store, or even take a yoga class. 

While this is currently the only H&M store of its kind, it's telling of where the company believes retail is headed. It's a very different direction from what we see in the rest of its often chaotic and cluttered fleet of stores

Once the king of fast fashion, H&M has stumbled in recent years and lost out to more nimble online players such as ASOS and Boohoo, which have cut down supply-chain times and swooped in to poach customers. As a result, sales growth at H&M has slowed. It has also battled with a mountain of unsold inventory and seen its stock price slump

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One of H&M's key areas of success has been its sister brands, specifically Cos, which is the second-largest brand in the company's portfolio and is focused on better-quality but higher-cost clothing

The overlap between Cos and its concept store is far greater than at its own H&M brand, signifying that Cos may have become the model for H&M stores of the future. 

Take a look around the concept store below:

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Its minimalist design looks a lot more like its higher-priced but better-quality sister store, Cos.

Its minimalist design looks a lot more like its higher-priced but better-quality sister store, Cos.

Cos has become one of the more successful areas of H&M's business. In a six-month report for the period from December 2016 to May 2017, H&M CEO Karl-Johan Persson said that Cos' profitability is in line with H&M despite having 95% fewer stores.

According to Reuters, yoga classes and events are put on for loyalty club members.

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H&M has been increasingly looking to diversify from its core brand and test out new concepts.

H&M has been increasingly looking to diversify from its core brand and test out new concepts.

In April, it launched a new, millennial-focused brand called Nyden, which professes to be "affordable luxury." This brand operates online and via pop-ups, rolling out a limited collection of clothing in small batches.