The main purpose of this blog is to compare H&M’s website to (ZARA) Inditex and Forever21 and critically analyse these websites’ features, layout ,target audience.
H&M and ZARA has two websites ( 1. Purchasing 2. About their background) while Forever21 has a combined website. H&M has a very nice website layout which is relatively attractive with a simple and bright look, Inditex has a relatively professional layout while Forever21 has a very basic with a fun design. H&M targets younger generation women who prefers cheap but high fashion goods which it will be further discussed below. However, ZARA targets both women and men which are very interested in high fashion, Forever21 targets younger audience.
Figure 1: (Fierceretail.com, 2018)
The above picture states that H&M is one of the brand that is highly purchased by younger generation people in comparison with ZARA and Forever21.
For all 3 companies’ purchasing website, the features are easy and practical to use, they have a very systematic drop box which states all items they provide clearly. H&M and Forever21 provides clear and systematic layout for their items with pictures and prices while ZARA’s item layout is rather complicated with different sizes of pictures.
All 3 companies have easy checkout procedures,provides different types of payment method and has the ability to track items. For the delivery services, ZARA and Forever21 provides free delivery above 60Pounds, however, H&M doesn’t provide this services.This would be a factor which customers concern.
H&M aims to bring a convenient and inspiring experience for their customers.Therefore, H&M is working on integrating on their digital channels and further develop their online presentations and functionalities by personalising their online sites and apps (About.hm.com, 2018). (include Zara or forever21 briefly)
These companies aimed to achieve OCE satisfaction as below which these companies have aspects of it.
Figure 2 :(The Website 2, 2018)
For the background information websites, H&M and ZARA provides clear and lots of information which could be searched by customers. While Forever21 has a very brief description about their company.
Watch to know more about H&M’s value:
H&M is a renown company offering high fashion at a reasonable price. Therefore, H&M’s website targets many religions, culture and lifestyle. Therefore, marketing has to be done by different segments such as demographic, geographic and psycho graphic (Gabrielajohnsons.blogspot.com, 2018). For example, segments of class, typically working class, lower middle class,and students; segments of age, mostly female of Y generation; segments by lifestyle, people who prefer to do shopping online rather than physical shopping and people who are busy working (Delirium, 2018). This can be referred to the personas provided below in (Appendix1.0 and Appendix 2.0). All there companies have websites similar targets as H&M which they consider segmentations by class, age and lifestyle (Bhasin, 2018).
H&M’s customer journey (Appendix 3.0)shows that most female like shopping online while male prefers shopping physically. The customer journey has a high relation to the personas and they are categorised into 4 sections which are awareness,research , conversion and post-sales engagement. Both male and female customers are more aware about H&M through social media and websites while males. According to research, female prefer shopping online while male prefer shopping physically . For post engagement sales, female prefer doing engagement with H&M through internet while males prefer doing it through stores.
In order to improve H&M’s website, H&M should do more publicity on social media and create more ads to attract customers especially male who are unaware about it. H&M should also provide more promotions for male’s items.
Appendices :
Appendix 1.0
Appendix 2.0
Appendix 3.0
References:
About.hm.com. (2018). H&M group | About. [online] Available at: https://about.hm.com/en/about-us.html [Accessed 22 Nov. 2018].
Bhasin, H. (2018). Marketing Strategy of Zara – Zara Marketing Strategy. [online] Marketing91. Available at: https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-strategy-zara/ [Accessed 22 Nov. 2018].
Delirium, P. (2018). Marketing Strategy H&M. [online] Academia.edu. Available at: http://www.academia.edu/12881172/Marketing_Strategy_H_and_M [Accessed 22 Nov.
Gabrielajohnsons.blogspot.com. (2018). Chapter 8: Segment and Target Markets.. [online] Available at: http://gabrielajohnsons.blogspot.com/2015/11/chapter-8-segment-and-target-markets.html [Accessed 22 Nov. 2018].
Inditex.com. (2018). Design – inditex.com. [online] Available at: https://www.inditex.com/en/how-we-do-business/our-model/design [Accessed 22 Nov. 2018].
The Website 2. (2018). .
Fierceretail.com. (2018). Generation Z prefers H&M, Forever 21 | FierceRetail. [online] Available at: https://www.fierceretail.com/digital/gen-z-prefers-h-m-forever21 [Accessed 4 Dec. 2018].
Bibliography:
Owler. (2018). H&M Competitors, Revenue and Employees – Owler Company Profile. [online] Available at: https://www.owler.com/company/hm [Accessed 25 Nov. 2018].
Slideshare.net. (2018). Brand Services — NEXT Berlin 2014. [online] Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/MartinJordan/brand-services-next-berlin-2014 [Accessed 22 Nov. 2018].
