H&M Sales Rise by 16%
H&M, considered the world's second largest retailer of fashion items, reports a sales rise of 16% for the month of July. According to the report, it is already their tenth consecutive month of enjoying sales rise of at least 10 percent. H&M in its press release said that it will release its updated third quarter report on September 15 of this year.
Experts predicted that the clothing company will be able to achieve a 12 percent rise for the previous month mainly because of the increase in their number of retail stores. From 3,314 stores of last year, H&M expanded to 3,649 retail stores.
The sales in July are the highest rate the company has recorded since August 2014. Also, H&M has not yet experienced a decline in sales since March.
Richard Chamberlain of RBC Capital Markets stated that H&M is enjoying the benefits of having improved online sales, expansion into other categories such as Home and Beauty and better seasonal sales.
Additionally, analyst Richard Jaffe says that H&M sales increase were 4% higher than expected because of excellent customer response to the brand's business. He added that the company should expect higher sales with the US dollar rate still strong.
Although the brand may have experienced an increase in its costs, Jaffe said that it is highly unlikely for H&M to pass the cost increase to their customers just so to appear that they are a low-cost provider and to improve its market share.
It is H&M's mission to provide quality and fashion at the best price, according to the company. The company has stores in 59 markets and is home to more than 132,000 employees. Other brands such as COS, Cheap Monday, & Other Stories, Weekday and Monki are also part of H&M.
The company is also said to have plans to open around 400 stores before 2015 ends and plans to offer their Beauty range to some 900 stores found in 40 markets as well as in online stores.