H&M continues to work against headwinds to boost sales. The clothing giant is investing in, among other things, shorter decision-making paths, more design collaborations and an enhanced customer experience to try to get sales going in an otherwise weak market.
There are some incredibly talented fashionistas who can really discover things for themselves, but generally speaking, customers are looking for a lot of guidance and help. That's where AI can be a fantastic tool, to help with keeping your wardrobe organized and matching it.
AI is being used
The use of artificial intelligence has also become more common in the company's creative processes and campaign work.
We see that our designers love working with AI. When it comes to the creative processes, we absolutely see it as a way to amplify, to create even sharper designs that get even more opportunities and create even more relevant collections.
Daniel Ervér does not expect the use of AI within the creative process to mean any staff reductions.
Then there are other monotonous and repetitive processes throughout the company where there is, of course, potential for efficiency with AI, but it's not about design and creative roles. We want to strengthen and accelerate those more with AI.
In 2025, H&M reduced the number of stores and in 2026, the clothing giant is also expected to close more than it opens. Daniel Ervér emphasizes that customers' access to physical stores remains important.
If in the future we have fantastic avatars that allow you to have the same experience digitally, things may change, but here and now we see that young customers in particular want to be in a physical store.
Operating profit increases
H&M made an operating profit of 6.4 billion kronor for the period September–November. This was an increase of 38 percent and clearly better than expected. Sales fell to 59 billion kronor, down from 62 billion a year earlier, a decline due to the strengthening krona.
The board proposes that the dividend to shareholders be SEK 7.10 per share, up 30 öre compared to last time.
