For a while last year, after a series of style misses that left it buried in $4 billion dollars of excess inventory and with a late start in e-commerce that made it that much harder to unload, things seemed dire for H&M. At first the company seemed more preoccupied with launching new brands and opening stores, if at a slower pace than first announced, than working through the issues at its flagship. That’s changed, and, while its shift to e-commerce and other moves are taking a bite out of profits, the apparel company is getting more serious about its digital operations and scaling back its footprint, with plans to shutter some 160 stores this year, with an “option to renegotiate almost 1,000 store contracts,” the company said in its full-year report presentation. Read more at Retail Dive.
