H&M Virtual Showroom
Creating the future of retail experiences
H&M beyond is an innovation hub of the Swedish fashion company H&M Group. Together with startups and innovators, they drive future-oriented projects. As part of H&M’s purpose to continuously look for ways to innovate and explore new opportunities, the brand joined forces with the digital experts of Journee and Dept to create its first virtual showroom experience.
A showroom is THE place for fashion companies to build and maintain important relationships with celebrities, influencers, stylists and media representatives. It's a shop window, catwalk, meeting point, event space and business hub. It’s a brand’s virtual home.
Create a remarkable digital brand experience – independent of location and opening hours.
The virtual showroom should enable to meet any kind of business partners virtually and provide the complete freedom of engaging and interacting whenever and with whomever. Targeted tours by the H&M showroom team should also inform the target groups about current trends and topics such as sustainability and new, innovative materials.
The new virtual space is hosted by the PR teams of Germany, The Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Slovenia. It is showing selected H&M collections in a new immersive experience, where for the first time 3D assets are used to extend the experience in terms of innovation.
How do we make fashion come alive if we cannot touch it, cannot wear it? What kind of value can a digital experience add to visitors and customers?
The all over look and feel of the showroom reflects the H&M brand DNA while dedicated areas in different designs represent sub-themes such as the 'sustainability garden' with information on the innovative material 'aircarbon', the meeting area with ‘H&M home’ influences or the 'campaign room' which tells the H&M innovation stories a fascinatingly innovative 3D way and hence add value for visitors and the H&M showroom team.
The user flows for the different target groups such as influencers, stylists and journalists were designed with the help of H&M's user insights, which provided the necessary guidance during the creative process.
User guidance, orientation and order in the rooms are particularly important. Through them, even inexperienced users can navigate through and discover the showroom in a playful way. Three selectable avatar designs represent the company values of diversity and inclusion.
In addition to the PR effects, the number of visitors, their countries of origin and the average length of stay in the individual areas of the experience - with a view to future brand activations - were defined as KPIs for this new showroom. With a view to operationalization, KPIs such as click rates of the download materials and qualitative feedback with the showroom and media stakeholders are planned.
“Previous digital press meetings were nothing compared to this experience. Amazing space and visual execution, i.e. 3D moving garments in the campaign room.”
GLAMOUR“Congrats to the space. We are in love – especially with the visuals.”
VOGUE“Super cool to experience such an entirely new and imaginary environment. Love the photo booth to share.”
FASHION UNITED“H&M's virtual showroom is intended as a space for brand activations such as fashion campaigns. These are brought to life in a whole new and exciting way by bringing together innovation, digitization and sustainability. It makes me very proud how much energy, heart and soul our colleagues have put into this project across national borders and departments. We look forward to exploring the potential in the countries of Central Europe and beyond,”
Thorsten MindermannRegional Manager H&M Central Europe
A survey conducted with GenZ visitors to the virtual showroom recorded a positive feedback:
- 69% of those surveyed stated that the showroom sparked their interest in a virtual H&M brand experience.
- 80% of those surveyed would like to take part in a virtual H&M brand experience as an H&M Hello Member.
- Most recently, a total of 85% of the visitors surveyed rated the virtual showroom experience as very positive.
Red Dot Design Awards / Digital Solutions / Winner
Digital Communication Awards / Innovation / Bronze
The Lovie Awards / Best Brand Integration - Brand Strategy / Bronze
The Lovie Awards / Business Fashion & Retail / Bronze
Groundbreaking Meta-TechnologyOur unique combination of cloud streaming, immersive design, and UX toolset creates the highest quality immersive experience on the internet while making it accessible for everyone through the browser.