H&M Competitive Analysis and Strategy

Running head: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
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STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Part A...............................................................................................................................................3
Situation Analysis............................................................................................................................3
Part B...............................................................................................................................................4
Situation Analysis Report................................................................................................................4
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................4
Market size and trends.....................................................................................................................4
Market trends...................................................................................................................................5
Financial and Corporate performance.............................................................................................5
SWOT Analysis...............................................................................................................................6
Competitive advantage....................................................................................................................7
Strategic options..............................................................................................................................7
Possible Recommendations.............................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Part A
Situation Analysis
Hennes & Mauritz is a Swedish company that operates in the industry of fashion
retailing, currently the brand is operational worldwide, they have 4,500 stores all around the
word and they are operational in 62 countries. The total number of employees in H&M is
132,000. The company is ranked second largest company in the field of fashion retailing after
Inditex, owned by Zara. The brand has online stores as well and it is further planning to expand
its online stores. The global presence of the company makes it a very popular and well-known
brand. The company currently is in a very good position. There are certain threats that are faced
by the country though that is affecting the business of the company. The company is forced to
sell its product at low cost because the shipping cost is very low, that indicates there is too much
of stocks for which the company is forced to put its garments in sale (Hansson, Wrangmo &
Solberg Søilen, 2013).
A very high cost is involved in the distribution of the garments. The report below will
show all the details of the market situation of H&M. According to the CEO Karl-Johan, the year
was very significant in terms of financial performance and it was eventful too (Thompson &
McLarney, 2017). In the same year, there was a shift in the industry, online market was in the
trend and many companies were choosing digital marketing. The digital marketing and online
marketing proved profitable to the firm as well because they have to target many customers at a
very less cost (Hammoudeh, 2014). However, there are lot of competition in this industry as
there are many companies in the fashion retail industry like Zara and Inc. The online market of