H&M sees profits fall amid digitalisation struggle - direct comment from Couchbase

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In light of H&M seeing profits fall, Perry Krug, principal architect, Couchbase, comments: "H&M is quite right on the need to innovate, and to do so quickly – one of the factors that finally crippled Jaeger in 2017 was that its digital transformation was too little, and far too late.

There is still time for retailers to adapt to the new needs of an increasingly online population, but this demands the right approach. A true digital project involves much more than simply allowing online shopping.

"Consumers are spoilt for choice by digital services, and their expectations have risen to match. To succeed, businesses need to remember that the customer or end user is the ultimate goal of any transformation – without an experience that engages the customer, the project will be a failure. Similarly, a modern digital transformation has to embrace mobile – if a customer cannot use your services anywhere, at any time, from any device then they will quickly look for an alternative. Lastly, businesses need to ensure that what works perfectly in testing and development also works perfectly when put into operation. There's no sense in creating the perfect experience if it can only serve a fraction of your customers.

"Digital is here to stay – businesses need to embrace it and truly engage with customers, using agile, scalable services, if they aren't going to be left behind."