Pick up the research report du jour and you know a couple of things for certain. One is that consumers want to shop where they want and when they want. In simple terms, it's not enough to just open a store today, merchants need to offer a seamless 24/7 experience across a variety of digital channels including online, mobile and social. The second is that each channel needs to be personalized and technologically optimized to deliver the best possible shopping experience at each digital stop.
So knowing all of the above, how is it that the fast-fashion chain H&M is delaying the launch of its online site in the U.S. by nine more months? The current delay marks the second time the chain has pushed back its U.S. launch date this year.
"The online market is increasingly growing, with particularly strong growth in mobile shopping via smartphones and tablets. To accommodate this rapid development, from as early as the beginning of next year we will also offer a completely mobile adapted H&M shop online in H&M's existing eight online markets," said Karl-Johan Persson, CEO of Hennes & Mauritz AB, in a statement.
"We have intensified preparations for the rollout of H&M shop online to other markets in the group," he added. "These investments — and as we need more time for the launch of our online shop for the US — mean that the launch of H&M shop online in the US has been moved to summer 2013."
Analysts see the launch of an H&M site as important to the company's growth in the U.S., so the announcement of another delay was "disappointing," according to Sydbank analyst Nicolaj Jeppesen.
"It means that the competitors, and especially Inditex, really gain momentum in this long period when Inditex is online in the U.S., but H&M is not," Mr. Jeppesen told The Wall Street Journal.