Arket is H&M’s new brand (launched August 2017) www.arket.com
Many Companies already disclose factory names online (H&M, Esprit, Adidas, Puma, Nike, Gap, Levi’s, Columbia…)
(+) The new feature here is to link it directly to the item (See screenshot above). Kudos to H&M for taking the initiative here!
(-) Not enough as the layman consumer won’t know what to do with that information to be honest. Unless he/she wants to buy specifically from this or that country maybe.
Next step for H&M’s team is to give more confidence to consumers. How?
- Somehow manage to link this factory name to an official & recognized 3rd party like FLA for instance (not so easy as plenty of them out there, with slightly different agenda, funding system, audit requirements…).
- Extract main characteristics of the factory onto the website [major violations? working hours? fire safety? building safety? …] and get 3rd party to verify with date of latest on-site audit maybe? => Ideally setup a basic color code system showing GREEN when everything is OK, ORANGE when some minor violations or CAP not implemented yet… and RED when serious issues (for sure H&M won’t sell many of those items…maybe not? At least incentive to fix it quickly…).
- Adding information such as years of (direct, i.e. no agent) collaboration with H&M might be useful as well. Could also be the audit history (color codes only) in past years to highlight progress (or not) made by the factory.
- Main issue for Consumers and H&M as well is how to be sure that the factory is not outsourcing without authorization. RFID-like labels, GPS markers, BlockChain disruptive technology could certainly be a game changer for the entire supply-chain in coming years.
Let’s give credit to H&M for this great new initiative and looking forward for improvement in near future!
