H&M website. First and last look…

The newly launched H&M UK site seemed promising – someone recommended I check it out, and since I have a couple of friends expecting babies soon I thought I would go and investigate baby clothes.

Firstly, I’m afraid to say, the site did not even load: I waited almost 2 minutes with a blank page only showing a very faded Union Jack flag – a nice way of indicating this is the UK site, if only the site loaded. Under normal circumstances I would have left to go to another site. But I persevered… and once I got the home page, clicked on the Kids tab at the top, which was easy enough, and took me to the kids section.

This however is where things go downhill. Highlighted on the left is the “current campaigns” section, and below the different children’s sections. I clicked on “Newborn”, fully expecting to be taken to a “Newborn” landing page, but all that happens is this:

As you can see, on the left, a choice of “Newborn 0-4 months” or “See all” has appeared – there was no change in the main part. I actually have to select “Newborn” again, and now I get this:

Ah. Only 1 Newborn item, and a rather obnoxious cross-sell strip at the bottom, flogging Women’s accessories that are in store now (does this mean incidentally they are not online?) , some soap, and a set which looks like a girls hat & scarf (why I am being shown this is anyone’s guess).

Clearly I am not going to bother further. Being a mum myself, I decide to check out the “Girls 1-8 years” section, and click on that link, only to get this:

While the selection on the left clearly shows I am in the “Girls 1-8 years” section, and provides below a menu for selecting a type of clothing, the central part of the site has not changed from the newborn item. You have to click again to go into a specific item of clothing – say, ”Tops” section – which then looks like this:

I still have the newborn item, all clicking did was open up a further menu of different kinds of tops – so, selecting “Tops” (within the tops section) I finally get this:

At which point, I get a slightly different, equally in-your-face cross selling strip: “Make my day”, whatever that means, has replaced the only relevant item (girls’ hat/scarf set).

This interaction (of the main image not changing if you change sections) is repeated whichever children’s section you select, as well as within the other sections (Men, Women) with the lower band of cross-sell changing without being necessarily more relevant (For example, Men’s Jackets & Blazers shows girls outerwear…)

If I am in the ‘tops’ for girls section, I want to see what ‘bottoms’ might go with them to make an outfit, for instance – not lavender soap …I know H&M sells this other stuff, if I want it I’ll go look for it. Whereas I might have bought additional items for my daughter if I’d been tempted with outfits ideas and an easy way of adding them to my cart, as it is, my first take on this site is that…I am not buying, and I am not coming back.

It’s not like there is no other choice out there…