H&M online

H&M Online: A customer experience

Website review

Layout, usability and product range
The new site is easy to navigate and already has a wide variation of products available, including sale items. If you click on an individual product, you are presented with a zoomed in picture, along with a list of other products, demonstrating a whole look, along with two other similar suggested looks (which you can click through to) – this is a great example of effective cross selling. You are then given the option to add the product to your basket, ‘wish list’ or post a blog about it.

Buying a product
After selecting three items of clothing from both the women’s and men’s section, I simply clicked through to the checkout, registered my details without any hassle and set up an account. You are required to opt into a newsletter when ticking the terms and conditions, although this is standard with most online retailers. I was then transferred to a page with delivery options, where I was notified that one of the items in my bag was not available in the warehouse until mid-October. This was not made clear when I selected the item, so H&M should consider making this clear early on, so as not to disappoint shoppers. I was then given the option to have the two available items delivered, costing £3.90 for P&P, and then have the third item delivered mid-October, costing another £3.90 in P&P, or I had the option to wait until all of the items were available to be delivered together, which I opted for.

ASOS is definitely ahead of the game in terms of online retail, and H&M should look to take a few pages out of its book. In comparison to its ever-growing range of brands and products - as well as free delivery and returns - H&M should look to review its supply chain and delivery options in the long term to stay ahead of the game, keeping up with its competitors and preventing potential customers from shopping elsewhere. Although processes can’t be expected to be perfect overnight, I’ll be interested to see how it develops over time. At this stage, the new website is very efficient and visually pleasing, and it can only get better.

Written by Charlotte Batten

Published March 2011