Question

H&M: The Retail-Clothing Giant Answer the four discussion questions associated with the case. The questions must be answer using an essay format. Submit the paper following the guidelines of the APA including academic references as appropriate. References taken from Wikis or .com sites are not appropriate for this course. References must come from textbooks or peer-reviewed journals. Does it surprise you that the second-largest clothing retailer is selling in stores in only 54 countries plus an additional 10 countries online? Why do you think it is not covering more of the world’s countries? H&M does not own any of the factories that produce its clothes. Instead, it relies on some 1,900 factories and 900 suppliers to create what its team designed. These factories and suppliers are mostly in Europe and Asia. How can H&M ensure that its customers receive the quality expected in the clothing? H&M stresses sustainability in its promotional campaigns. How can it ensure that the working conditions are appropriate for the 1.6 million people that serve in its supplier network? Is it even H&M’s role to ensure that the working conditions and environmental impact are great in every market it engages in? If you worked for H&M, what would you suggest that it focus on to become even larger than it is now? Should it have its own factories? Should it expand to more than the 64 countries (54 with stores and 10 online) that it is in now? Should it control more of the global supply chains?

Answer 1

H&M model:

The model of business is to apply fast fashion across the globe. Whenever there is a change in pattern of the demographic lifestyle of its customers, H&M makes sure that a bulk of fashionable clothes are manufactured and sent out to all the stores.Of cource, the quality of manaufacturing is not going to be that high, because such fashion just stays in trend for a while and leaves.

Expansion:

H&M is planning to increase its presence by expanding to more than 7000 stores across the globe. Due to its business model, it wanted to test out the quality and feasibility of sending out just the state of the art clothes and not the perennial ones. Since the model is a success, there are plans to increase the reach.

How can it get expected quality?

1. Currently, H&M buys the entire lot from the manufactured outlets so that there will be no blame game between the suppliers and the merchandise. This keeps a strong promise between the parties and works as a guarantee to help increase trust and confidence of the supplier.

2. Further added, H&M can try spreading out the word of the work supplied by these outlets to keep the world aware of the backgroud work these factories do for the global reach. Such a tie-up of co-branding will boost the morale of the suppliers and encourage them to give better quality clothes.

Working conditions of the entire network and H&M's role in this:

1. H&M has a role in the working conditions as the entire model is based on the ROI that the whole merchandise gets.

2. To keep the faith of the suppliers, H&M team makes sure that only 20% of the total supply becomes the on-the-fly products while the rest of the 80% is sent out to the stores to be sold.

3. Added to that, the global supply chain propspects would be increased in percentage returns in order to continue business with the suppliers.

Focus now:

1. Current style is perfect for the business model. Set up of own factories are not required to ensure the trend stays in tact.

2. Expansion is necessary to understand the global market. Only then will they be able to spend on manufacturing other styles and export them to various countries to keep the style trending everywhere. This can help spread the taste of other countries in those countries that have not experienced them. This will help in testing out the mindset of the buyers and their acceptance level of variety of styles.

3. In addition, control of the supply chain is necessary while expansion takes place. Keeping up the quality and still meeting the demands of all the suppliers for raw material will be hectic and crucial.