Anne-Kathrine Nissen, the CX Design Lead for H &M, doesn’t just see a business that sells products to customers. She sees a massive, living web of human interactions.
The story of H&M’s transformation, as told by Anne-Kathrine, isn’t about a new app or a flashier website. It is a story about using holistic design to reinvent a brand and how it connects with its customers and their journeys.
Nissen reflects, “Throughout my career, I have been fascinated by the intersection of systems and people—specifically, how we perceive, inhabit, and navigate our surroundings. With a background rooted in a Master’s in Architecture and Interaction Design, my approach is defined by a constant zooming in and out. I thrive on balancing the holistic vision with the granular details that make an experience feel seamless.
“My journey has taken me across diverse industries—from the high-stakes environments of aviation and the domestic intimacy of home appliances to the fast-paced world of e-commerce. Today, I serve as the CX Design Lead for the customer journeys at H&M”.
“In this role, my mission is to act as the connective tissue for the brand. A Design Lead doesn’t just look at a single screen or a single store shelf; I connect the dots across every customer journey to find the overarching story arcs that define our relationship with the world, delivering business value and an elevated customer experience”.
Liberating fashion for the many
Founded in 1947, H & M remains family-owned, staying true to its original mission – making style accessible to everyone. Nissen comments, “While we evolved over the years into a broad marketplace featuring hundreds of third-party brands, our recent brand relaunch marks a return to our roots. We are once again focused on ‘liberating fashion for the many’, ensuring that stylish, high-quality clothing remains affordable“.
“Historically, H&M operated in a relatively uncontested space. and didn’t face much pressure in the mid-tier fast-fashion market. However, we eventually found ourselves squeezed from all sides. We realised we had become too bland and anonymous.
“To reclaim our edge, we had to take a bold step forward. We returned to our core mantra: ‘liberating fashion for the many’. This mission has empowered the brand to take charge of its identity once again. We are leaning back into our heritage as pioneers; after all, H&M was the first in the world to launch designer collaborations, starting with our landmark partnership with Karl Lagerfeld. Today, while collaborations are everywhere, we are refocusing on that original spirit of high-fashion accessibility”.
Beyond the transaction
For years, like many retail companies, H&M operated in silos. E-commerce lived in one world, the physical stores in another. But Nissen realised that the customer didn’t care about internal department names. To the customer, there is only one H&M.
“From design side, we’re heavily focused on omnichannel integration, intentionally blurring the lines between our digital and physical spaces. Our goal is a seamless experience: you might browse a physical store and then continue the browse online, or have items items delivered to your favorite store, she says.
“We believe the physical store offers a unique, sensory experience that digital simply can’t replicate. By merging these worlds, we ensure that the ease of online shopping meets the experience of our brick-and-mortar locations. We play to each channel’s unique strenghts”.
Curiosity over compliance
Lifting the brand globally required for example that we needed to expand the customer insights framework. We synthesised signals from every channel and interviewed the customers—really listening to the ‘nuance’ of the experience. When being truly curious towards our customers. they discovered that true omnichannel wasn’t about being everywhere; it was about being relevant everywhere.
This also meant reimagining the role of the employee. In H & M’s vision, the staff on the floor weren’t just sales associates; they were the human face of the digital journey. If a customer looked at a coat online but bought it in-store, that wasn’t two separate events—it was one continuous story.
To truly elevate a brand, H & M recognised that the transformation couldn’t be purely external. It required a holistic redesign of three interconnected pillars – the Brand Experience, the Customer Experience, and, crucially, the Employee Experience.
Nissen says, “Redesigning the employee experience meant looking far beyond surface-level changes. We set out developing global frameworks and templates, refined our ways of working, and evolving the actual systems our teams use daily. After all, a premium customer experience is only possible when the internal employee experience is just as thoughtfully designed”.
Making the transition
As the design lead for their brand relaunch, Nissen led and supported the digital design side of a multi-year transformation that began in 2022, moved to a 2023 pilot, and rolled out across Europe and the US in 2024-2025.
To ensure the relaunch hit the mark, H & M conducted extensive prototype testing across multiple markets, allowing customers to engage with the new design over several days to provide deep, longitudinal feedback. This rigorous validation gave us the confidence that we were on the right track before our global rollout..
Nissen comments, “We understood from the beginning that a major brand shift can be jarring; initial reactions aren’t always a perfect reflection of long-term success. Changing brand perception is a “long game” that unfolds over years, not weeks. To measure our true impact, we are moving beyond immediate reactions to track the longterm impact.
H & M has fostered an environment where innovation and experimentation could flourish safely. By democratising insights, they’ve empowered the organisation to act on customer truths in real-time.
A new way of being
For H&M, the journey from isolated kingdoms to a unified brand identity proves that true transformation is never skin-deep.
The shift marks a return to the brand’s pioneering roots, trading anonymity for a bold, omnichannel future that prioritises relevance over mere presence. As H&M continues to play the ‘long game’, the focus remains clear – leveraging a robust design toolbox to liberate fashion for the many, while ensuring that every touchpoint—digital or physical—tells a single, cohesive story.
In the end, H&M isn’t just selling clothes; it is designing a seamless, inclusive relationship with the modern world.
Anne-Kathrine Nissen was the International Keynote at the Customer 360 Symposium
