H&M earns top spot for global web traffic

Dive Brief:

Marketing software firm SEMrush reported this week that fast-fashion retailer H&M was the most visited apparel e-commerce site worldwide in March. H&M received more than 67 million visits, while second-place Macy's received just short of 56 million.
Shoppers in the United States make up nearly 28% of visitors on global fashion websites, according to SEMrush data. Japan is the second largest driver of traffic at almost 18%, while about 11% of traffic comes from Russia.
Among sources, direct traffic took a long lead with nearly 45%. Search accounted for 33.8% of traffic, while social platforms ranked last, driving just 2% of traffic.

Dive Insight:

H&M proves its global prowess in this newest set of web traffic data, but U.S. stalwart Macy's is still showing its staying power. When SEMrush first published its list of top retailers by web traffic in 2017, Asos was on top followed by H&M and Macy's, respectively, according to WWD. At that time, U.S. visitors provided a notably larger share of traffic with 57.5% of visitors to the firm's list of top sites.

In the 2018 roundup, Nordstrom.com was on top nationally for web traffic, with Asos in first in the U.K. Macy's was the most searched fashion commerce website in the United States, with H&M holding the number one global spot for search.

Macy's has topped other retail traffic rankings. The department store came in first for general apparel regarding average monthly traffic from July 2017 to June 2018 in a report from SimilarWeb Retail Trend. Although Macy's has closed 100 stores in recent years, it's still the largest department store chain in the U.S.

Both H&M and Macy's have ramped up their loyalty programs. Last spring, Macy's expanded its Star Rewards loyalty program to include customers who don't have a Macy's credit card. These "Bronze" tier members can get discounts on certain days along with birthday offers. More recently, H&M expanded its app-focused loyalty program to the United States (its 17th global market to get the H&M Member program) offering discounts, digital receipts and free shipping for purchases over $40.