Hugo Boss to accelerate e-commerce growth over next two years

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jul 2, 2020

Fashion retailer Hugo Boss has revealed details of a plan designed to boost its online growth, underpinned by the launch of new online markets and more “strategic online partnerships”.

The German luxury brand said on Wednesday that the strategy will help it grow online sales to more than €400 million by 2022, up from €151 million last year.

The e-commerce drive comes on the back of three months of store closures across Europe as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“The growing importance of online has become even more evident in 2020, as our industry continues to face an unprecedented situation and consumer behaviour increasingly shifts from offline to online,” Matthew Dean, director of global e-commerce at Hugo Boss, said in a statement.

“We are therefore accelerating the international rollout of our online store, thereby making further, systematic headway with the digitalisation of our business model.”

The plan involves launching Hugoboss.com in 24 new markets by August, adding the likes of Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Poland and Portugal to the list of countries that can use the e-commerce platform to buy products.

Hugo Boss will fulfil all orders from its central warehouses in Germany and the US and customers will have access to local currencies and local payment methods. The online store is expected to generate sales of at least €200 million by 2022, up from approximately €100 million last year.

To reach more countries in the crucial Asia Pacific market, the brand is planning to strengthen its partnerships with online marketplaces. An “online concession model” will allow it to have full control over the way its collections are presented and sold, as well as ensuring a consistent pricing strategy, while the region’s leading retailers like Tmall and JD.com will take care of fulfilment and provide access to a massive audience.

Hugo Boss said online sales via marketplaces are expected to grow by 300% to at least €200 million by 2022.