H&M Becomes Majority Owner In Sellpy

With a move that follows the fashion retailer’s efforts to become fully circular and support its global expansion, H&M Group has taken a majority stake in Sellpy. The group began investing in the re-commerce business in 2015 and has invested roughly US$5.07m (SEK50m) via its CO:LAB investment arm, Just-Style reported.

Sellpy CEO Michael Annör said, according to the report, “We are excited to continue to work even closer with H&M Group to empower everyone to live circular, regardless if they live in Sweden or elsewhere. With the support of H&M Group we can continue to innovate and drive awareness and adoption of re-commerce.”

Founded in 2014, Sellpy could grow its current offering “into a complete platform for second-hand fashion” per the outlet. It is now gearing up for a global expansion beginning with Germany. And, through its recent investment, purchase of secondaries, and follow-on investment, H&M has transitioned from a minority shareholder to a majority owner with a stake of approximately 70 percent in the company.

The retailer says per the report that it will invest SEK60m more via two separate installments “within a few years.” H&M Group will have a stake of about 74 percent in H&M Group when the entire investment is carried through.

CO:LAB Head Nanna Andersen said, according to the report, “We keep investing in Sellpy because we strongly believe in the company and the founders. Sellpy has a unique circular business model, which perfectly aligns with H&M Group’s vision to become fully circular.”

In separate H&M news, online visibility management platform company SEMrush found that H&M was the most frequented site around the world in a study of the most visited eCommerce fashion websites per reports earlier this year. Fashion retailers Macy’s and Wildberries followed H&M in the ranking per to the study’s results.The firm also found that Zaful was the fourth most visited website, which came before Trendyol in fifth place.