True: Fashion giant H&M sees sales in China slump after the Xinjiang boycott.

By: Sunil Kumar
July 7 2021

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H&M's sales in the Chinese market fell 28 percent in Swedish krona terms in the second quarter of 2021 after the boycott. On March 29, 2021, BBC reported that H&M, Nike, and other well-known multinational companies were boycotted by Chinese consumers, e-commerce sites, and social media platforms. Members of China's predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority community were allegedly forced to pick cotton in Xinjiang. H&M was pulled out of e-commerce sites, and few stores were shut in the country due to the boycott. H&M released a statement on March 31, 2021, saying that they comply with local laws and regulatory frameworks in all the markets they operate and are committed to winning back customer trust. According to H&M Group's second-quarter report (March-May, 2021), its net sales in Swedish krona (SEK) were 1,624 million in 2021 and 2,259 in 2020. The net figure converted into percentage shows a 28 percent reduction in its sales in 2021, or a 23 percent drop in local currencies, to 1.6 billion crowns ($189 million) in the three months through May. As of May 31, there were 489 stores in the Chinese market. The market's net new shop counts shrank by 13 in the second quarter. H&M opened its first mainland China store in Shanghai in 2007. By the end of February 2021, it had 502 stores in the country. Reuters reported that H&M was singled out in particular since China is one of its biggest markets for sales. It accounted for 5 percent of total sales in 2020. In China, the company was removed from the Tmall e-commerce site, and its retail locations from mobile phone maps, and its app was removed from local app stores.