Why fast-fashion brands like H&M are losing millennial customers in Malaysia and Singapore
Growing awareness of environmental and workers’ issues, as well as intense competition from online brands, are contributing to a dip in demand for fast fashion. But do enough people really care to make a lasting difference?
Melissa Chi, 30, remembers when her wardrobe was full of H&M clothing and accessories. After discovering the Swedish brand during an internship in Washington, the Singaporean, who runs an online healthy lifestyle store, quickly became a fan of its smart design, decent quality and affordable prices.
Today, however, Chi rarely wears fast-fashion items, H&M or otherwise. Since she became a convert to sustainable living two years ago, she has learned just how damaging the fast-fashion industry is for the environment.
“The whole mentality that we should buy more because it’s cheap just didn’t seem right any more,” she says.
It was a 180-degree sartorial turn for Chi, one that many other young Singaporeans and Malaysians are going through.
More than 1,000 shoppers queued outside H&M’s Singapore flagship store when it opened in 2011, excited to become its first customers. The following year, about 1,500 people did the same at its Kuala Lumpur flagship on its first day of business. And when H&M collaborated with luxury brands Balmain and Kenzo, launching the collections in 2015 and 2016 respectively, similar frenzies occurred.
Fast forward and H&M’s quarterly report ending February 28 indicates Asian millennials’ appetite for the brand’s trendy apparel may be on the wane. Malaysia recorded a 1 per cent drop in sales over the quarter, while the Singapore operation saw sales fall by 10 per cent.
