(Bloomberg)—Hennes & Mauritz AB has another headache: not being able to deliver online goods as fast as it wants.
The struggling Swedish fashion retailer is being inundated with complaints on its Facebook page from customers who haven’t received their products on time. One says that her baby will soon be “too big for the items” she ordered 26 days ago, while another worries that clothes ordered three weeks ago will “go out-of-fashion.”
And H&M acknowledges it has problems. Construction at its online distribution center in Boras, Sweden, is resulting in delays in Sweden and Norway, which account for about 7% of the company’s online and physical store sales, according to spokeswoman Katarina Gustafsson.
“We hope for our customers’ understanding and regret any inconvenience caused,” she said in an email.
The delays may complicate the company’s efforts to boost sales. H&M, No. 409 in the Internet Retailer 2017 Top 1000, said it’s maintaining its targets for sales growth of at least 25% from e-commerce and new businesses this year, even though it missed that rate in the first quarter. Online sales rose 20% while revenue from new businesses gained 15%.
The delivery problems hit at the heart of the company’s strategy shift to focus more on online sales and new store formats. The restructuring of the online distribution center aims to speed up delivery times from H&M’s current standard of five to seven days, Gustafsson said.
Customers are imploring H&M to be more transparent.
“Your website states 5-7 days for delivery… If the info is wrong, please change it so that customers know about the lengthy delivery time rather than misrepresentation of the delivery timeline,” one says.