H&M is pulling the plug on Nyden, a Los Angeles-based subsidiary brand that was created to appeal to young people by working with influencers and celebrities. The brand barely lasted for a year. Meanwhile, the group is investing in innovative store concepts.
Capsule collections with influencers
Nyden was only announced at the end of 2017, but is already being terminated and integrated into the main brand. According to Fashion Network, the brand will no longer exist autonomously. Nyden was launched as part of the new ‘tribes’ strategy – a strategy H&M firmly believed in at the time. The idea was to start creating separate brands and formulas for each target audience, rather than putting everything under the H&M moniker.
Nyden was going to be the concept for millennials who like to shop online and who are guided by celebrities. The brand consisted mostly of capsule collections in collaboration with influencers such as Dr. Woo, Justine Skye and Hart Denton. There were also going to be partnerships with football player Jérôme Boateng and singer Dua Lipa, but those were cancelled. The collections, limited in quantity and only temporarily available, were launched online at regular intervals.
Testing innovations
The end of Nyden does not come wholly unexpected: its founder, Oscar Olsson, left the company last summer and later in the year, twelve jobs were cut at the brand’s headquarters in L.A. Another sign was H&M’s recent cancellation of Cheap Monday, another brand for young people.
Nevertheless, the project is not quite finished, as a spokesperson emphatically stated. Nyden is being integrated into the group platform: “Nyden is an integrated collaborative project by the H&M group. It has given us the opportunity to try out various innovative ideas. This should not be compared to other brands in the group that are part of the New Business Department (Arket, Afound, Monki, & Other Stories, …). We have seen positive results with the Nyden project and in the autumn of 2018, we decided to join the project to H&M in order to strengthen the exchange.”
Experiments with new store concepts
Meanwhile, H&M is continuing its investment in physical stores: in 2018 the company experimented with the interior and exterior of the stores. Both the product range and the overall look and feel of the stores were modified. The tests will be continuing throughout this year.
The purpose of these new interior concepts is to create a more personal and hospitable atmosphere. H&M is also introducing new technology to make it easier for employees and customers to find products. Today, shoppers can already sort through the available goods in particular shops using the H&M app and the new concept will also feature a digital wall where customers can share their H&M favourites using the #HMxME hashtag.
In the stores that were opened in the past two years in London, Madrid and Stockholm, the fashion group is experimenting withextra services. These include a café concept named It’s Pleat, a florist, self-service registers and repair services. H&M is also adding more external brands to its own shops.
