H&M (Hennes & Mauritz AB) refers to a Swedish international retail clothing firm. H&M is popular for its fast-fashion clothing for women, children, women and teenagers. H&M operates in 61 countries and has more than 3, 700 retail stores across the world (H&M, 2016). For purposes of this assignment, I decided to visit one of the retail stores of H&M as a mystery shopper. Specifically, I visited H&M store located at the Pavilions Shopping Centre in the Birmingham City, United Kingdom. Therefore, the following is my experience and observations regarding H&M store of Birmingham, UK. Also, I will include some of the marketing opportunities that I observed during the exercise and my recommendations to the management of the store.
In-store Experience and Observations
I would be lying to say that my experience with mystery shopping at H&M was bad. Actually, it was awesome. Concerning merchandising, I was able to see how the clothes were arranged. The clothes were arranged according to the four consumer groups that the company is targeting namely; the women, men, teenagers and young children. Each consumer group has its own section. Additionally, there was a section of the Weekday brands. This section had in-house brands such as Weekday and MTWTFSS Collection as well as the external brands. Being a weekend, there were special discounts on this category of the brand. I found this merchandising technique amazing since a customer will be able to access his or her product, in this case, clothe very easily. Therefore, the merchandising method adopted by H&M makes the company be among the top organized retail stores and thus they do not inconvenient their customers during the shopping exercise.
Additionally, the displays were also interesting. For each of the four sections, there were displays. Furthermore, there were displays of latest arrivals and also trending fashions. This was more evident in the women, teenagers and children sections since the company acknowledges that these are the consumer groups that are more sensitive to fashion and trends. Also, another notable experience was the in-store atmosphere. The in-store atmosphere was cool, and there was a free flow of air as opposed to many other retail stores that do not have a free flow of air and the inside temperatures are relatively hot. The cool in-store temperature of H&M provides its customers with a favourable environment for shopping. The in-store environment was clean and the floor was also smooth and dry. This made the shopping environment more favourable. Moreover, the in-store environment of shopping was enhanced further with the music that was playing at low volume.
The customer service of H&M was also great. During the mystery shopping exercise, I was able to interact with one of their shop attendants who was very polite and courteous. She helped me very much and even enquired if I needed further assistance. I was also able to see this on the way their counter people addressed the customers. They were so kind and respectful. They also closed the sales by thanking the customers for shopping with them and also inviting them to their next shopping time. Moreover, this was also illustrated in the way their customer service department tried to help their customers who had different problems. They tried their best to solve the issues and for those problems that they were not able to handle they referred them to the appropriate departments. Also, they were very fast in offering the customer services and thus customers did not have to wait long before their problems were sorted.
Finally, of notable concern during my mystery shopping exercise was the prices for the various clothes. I was able to notice that even though the pricing at H&M was affordable, it was relatively higher compared to most of its competitors especially the online stores such as Very, Boohoo.com and Topman. This observation is likely to work against H&M, and thus the company needs to come up with effective strategies to ensure that its pricing is also competitive.
Brand Identity of H&M
For a person who has visited one of the retail stores for H&M, it is not difficult to understand the company’s brand identity. This is because its brand identity is effectively communicated through their various stores. For instance, during my mystery shopping exercise at one of its stores located in the Pavilions Shopping Centre in the Birmingham City, I was able to notice that the retail store was fast in offering service. Additionally, the company tries its best to have quality fashions. Furthermore, its prices were also affordable. Hence, the brand’s identity can be described in three words as affordable, quality and fast-fashion Retail Company.
Marketing Opportunities
Although H&M is among the leading companies in the clothing market, there are various opportunities that the company can utilize in order to make it more successful. One of the opportunities is opening an online store. Currently, the world is more digital oriented, and many consumers are using digital methods to shop. Therefore, the management of H&M should also consider online stores as a measure to serve their customers better and also curb competition from the online stores. Opening online stores will enable the company to cut costs related with renting its stores and also reduce the number of its employees significantly. Therefore, the company will be able to charge even lower prices than those of its competitors. Furthermore, the concept of online stores will be more convenient for the customers since they will be able to order at their convenient time and place. The customers will thus not incur costs of travelling to the nearest retail outlets. Moreover, the customers will be able to access the features and prices of all the H&M products within the shortest time possible.
Another marketing opportunity that H&M can utilize is expanding its product line. Currently, H&M mainly deals with clothes. However, the company should also consider marketing clothes related products such as shoes. Usually, many shoppers for clothes also shop for shoes since they are related. Therefore, marketing of shoes will also help the company to open avenues for more income. Additionally, the concept of expanding product line is also likely to increase the sales of the current products. For instance, clothes, especially for ladies, usually match with shoes hence when a customer buys a shoe; he or she is also likely to buy a cloth that will match the shoe. The concept of expanding its product line is also good for the customers of H&M since it will provide them with a One Stop Shop where they can find many things. Again, the idea will also enable the customers to benefit from better discounts that H&M are likely to offer.
Reference
H&M,. (2016). Fashion and quality clothing at the best price. Retrieved 22 February 2016, from http://www2.hm.com/en_gb/index.html
