H&M CEO Karl-Johan Persson said in a statement that the company's "online sales and sales of the group's other brands continued to develop well" but that physical stores "were negatively affected by a continued challenging market situation with reduced footfall to stores due to the ongoing shift in the industry".
Sales between September and November dropped by 4% compared to the same period last year to 50.4 million kronor (€5 million, $5.9 million). In local currencies, sales fell by 2%. On Friday morning, the company's share price plunged by 15% in the Stockholm Stock Exchange.
"In order to respond even quicker to customers' fast-changing behaviour the company's ongoing transformation journey is being accelerated," Persson said.
"This includes continued integration of the physical and digital stores, and intensifying the optimisation of the H&M brand's store portfolio - leading to more store closures and fewer openings," he added.
The group did not specify exactly how many stores would be closed and where. H&M had announced earlier this year that it would open physical stores around the world to compensate for the downturn due to fierce competition from online sales platforms.
H&M group, which owns other popular brands such as COS, Monki and Weekday, has 4,553 physical stores around the world as of 31 August.
Source: AFP
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