Up-to-date coverage of the latest events in UK retail.

Transformation ‘intensifies’ at H&M

Fashion retailer H&M posted a sales rise in its second quarter of 2019. Net sales increased 11% to SEK 57,474m in the period to May 31. In local currencies, they advanced 6%.

The retailer said: “The rapid changes in the fashion industry continue and we can see that our own transformation work is taking us in the right direction, although hard work and many challenges still remain. As customer satisfaction and sales increase, we have intensified our transformation work even further.”

Target check-out crash could cost $50m

Check-out problems over the weekend at US retailer Target could cost the retailer as much as $50 million in lost sales, Bloomberg reported.

Target’s tills crashed for two hours on Saturday, for which the retailer blamed an “internal technology issue”. Shoppers shared complaints and photos of abandoned trolleys on social media.

Target takes as much as a third of its weekly sales on Saturday, so the outage may have cost about $50 million, according to Kantar Consulting’s Bryan Gildenberg.