H&M to launch new marketplace Afound

Swedish fashion retailer H&M will launch an off-price marketplace later this year featuring discounted fashion and lifestyle brands, both external and those from the H&M group.

Afound, which will be introduced as a new brand, will be launched both online and with physical stores, starting in Sweden in 2018.

H&M’s ANZ communications manager Elizabeth Cave said there are still no details on whether the retailer will open an Afound store in Australia.

The company’s first store will open in Drottninggatan, Stockholm in parallel with the launch of the digital marketplace in Sweden.

H&M has not specified which brands, or how many, will be featured on Afound, but Cave said the retailer will reveal more details closer to the launch date which would probably include a list of all participating brands.

Cave said Afound will be a “style- and deal-hunting paradise”, a marketplace selling discounted fashion and lifestyle products, with both external and the H&M group’s own brands, offering a wide range of well-known, popular brands for both women and men.

“Afound will present a carefully selected, season-less range from Swedish and international brands in a variety of price segments both online and in physical stores,” she said.

Fredrik Svartling, managing director of Afound, said in a statement that there’s big potential for Afound and that the business is looking forward to introducing the marketplace.

“Afound cares about both the value of the products and the mix,” Svartling said. “And by offering personal style inspiration, quality labels, and the sense that you’re getting a really good deal, Afound will offer a new form of off-price experience.”

According to H&M Group CEO Karl-Johan Persson in an earlier statement, H&M is branching out into new concepts, like Afound, in order to keep up with the fashion industry’s ever-changing pace and to increase its market share.

“We constantly work on new ideas and innovations that will drive us forward – and there are many in our pipeline for 2018 and the years to come,” Persson said.