H&M Finally Embrace Digital

Two things have happened this week which suggest Swedish fashion retailer H&M are beginning to take the digital channel seriously, with the announcements that firstly they are launching a global digital campaign to push their Autumn / Winter collection, and secondly that they are due to start selling online in the UK next Autumn.

The decision to start selling online represents a mindshift change for the retailer, who were one of the last high street brands to put investment behind an ecommerce channel. The decision comes after third quarter pre-tax profits were slightly higher than expected, and it also comes on the back of major rival Zara announcing last week it was going to do the same.

The global digital campaign has been created by agency Perfect Fools, and encompasses social media activity and a website that tries to bring the print activity to life through slow motion video. The site certainly looks pretty and is great for profiling a limited number of top products, but it's all in flash and internal navigation/search within the site is very limited.

H&M are supporting the campaign with display activity and on their Facebook page, and they're also trying to get users to embed links into their own blogs and social network profiles.