After almost a decade in South Africa, Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) will finally start selling its products online, through fashion and homeware e-commerce platform Superbalist, as of 22 February.

The Swedish fashion retailer – which opened in South Africa in 2015 – first made its plans to partner with Superbalist public in December 2022, but had not released an official launch date at the time.

All H&M’s locally-sold products – including clothing, homeware and interior products – will be stocked on the Takealot-owned platform. Customers will have access to Superbalist’s delivery and collection service and parcel collection will also be available via Takealot’s pickup points across the country.

“The partnership reinforces our commitment to sustainable growth in South Africa and will complement our current 28 stores across the country,” said H&M country manager Caroline Nelson in a statement.

Slow growth

H&M plans to open a store at the Tygervalley Shopping Centre, in Cape Town’s Northern Suburbs on 27 April and has also ventured further into homeware.

In November 2022 H&M opened its first standalone homeware store, H&M Home, in Sandton City, joining other such retailers including Mr Price Home, TFG-owned brands @Home and Coricraft, as well as Pepkor’s budget-friendly Pep Home.

The store opening comes at the tail-end of the home renovation boom, brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, so time will tell if the group has appetite to open more home stores.

Takealot

Meanwhile, Naspers-owned Takealot has been on an aggressive growth path over the last year. The deal with H&M is just the latest in a string of recent deals announced by the e-commerce platform.

In 2022, Mr Delivery – a subsidiary of Takealot – inked a deal with one of South Africa’s largest grocery retailers Pick n Pay. The deal allows consumers to shop groceries on the food delivery App and essentially helps Pick n Pay play catchup in the on-demand grocery delivery space which competitor Shoprite has been dominating since 2020 with the Checkers Sixty60 App.

In the same year, Takealot revealed that it had an appetite to set up Takealot Pickup points at several Pick n Pay stores across the country. The project is still in its pilot phase, having opened just one collection point in Cape Town, but the e-commerce company did say that it was keen to rollout the idea at 2000 more Pick n pay stores should the concept prove to be viable.