Why is it important for H&M to bet on second-hand within its new store concept?
— With interest in secondhand rapidly increasing, we see this as a great addition to our core collections in-store. What is important to our customers becomes important to us. By integrating H&M Pre-loved into our physical stores, we offer our customers an integrated shopping experience and thereby lower the threshold to buy secondhand.
How do you see the operation in terms commercial versus brand building? Is this a commercial opportunity or a way of building a story around the brand? Perhaps a way to engage with the consumer?
— Hopefully, those two metrics go hand in hand; I don’t have to choose one to define if these initiatives are successful. We see a strong growth in this segment. Ellen McArthur Foundation, BCG, Statista and many more has estimated the value of the second hand to be USD 370bn 2030 and second hand growing 3-5 times quicker in CAGR than traditional fashion. Strong fashion items at great value link very well to our core business idea, and we hope to engage and cover a new customer’s demand and lower the threshold of our existing customer base to complement their purchase with a pre-loved one.
Second-hand has been done at sister brands like Monki; why is now the right time for H&M?
— We opened our first Pre-loved shop in a H&M store in 2023. Now, there are four H&M stores globally offering the curated assortment, and we have evaluated, refined, and improved our first tests and are ready to launch this further. We see the customer is positive and appreciating our extended offer.
Could you talk about the partnerships you have to make this happen? They are different for different markets.
— Yes, we are working with various partners who specialise in secondhand. One example is working with the local vintage expert James Veloria in the US for our Soho store, and another example is the strong partnership we have with our group venture, Sellpy. Sellpy is amazing in its assortment, operations, and effective supply chain of single SKU merchandise, and we see a great opportunity to combine our strengths.
How does the curation process work? Are you choosing the garments or your partners? Could you talk about how you think about curation? From what I have seen, it’s not only H&M-owned brands.
— Exactly, the selection is a mix of H&M Group brands and other brands. Knowing that vintage-savvy customers love the hunt for variation, we see a multi-branded offer as a must to be relevant. The ability to access these brands for less is one of the key reasons for buying second-hand, and making that possible through Pre-loved is very much in line with our aim at liberating fashion for the many. The CBM (Circular Business Model) team does the curation process centrally by looking into the overall trends for the season for H&M and how Pre-loved can complement and elevate those trends. Then, the individual pick is done in collaboration with the partners. The curation is where H&M Pre-loved sticks out and set us apart from secondhand competitors. We want to become the fashion guarantor for the customer. Thereby, we take care of the most challenging part of shopping second-hand: finding “the needle in the haystack”. This way, we lower the barrier and reluctance of shopping pre-loved.
H&M is now famously rolling out a new strategy and a brand overhaul. What role do secondhand and circularity play in that strategy?
— H&M Pre-loved allows accessibility to brands and durable qualities for less. It plays a role and fits with H&M, showing how fashion unleashes self-expression and aims to liberate fashion for the many. It is also a way of keeping a relevant and competitive product offering.
What other initiatives around circularity are you working on right now?
— Alongside adding Pre-loved to physical concept stores, we also work on the digital offer, expanding this to 17 markets with an H&M Pre-loved branded page at Sellpy.com and working with ThredUp in the US for their digital offer. Another exciting thing is our rental offer; last Christmas, we started offering unique rental items from our Designer Collections, and we will continue with unique drops during fall. We have many more exciting things to come this autumn, so stay tuned…
