H&M has acquired a minority investment in e-commerce platform Centra, marking a strategic move to strengthen its presence in the digital commerce landscape.

Founded in 2016, Centra’s cloud-based technology is specifically designed for fashion and lifestyle brands, offering both direct-to-consumer (DTC) and wholesale (B2B) solutions.

The firms’ offering aims to help brands better manage their online stores, expand globally, and deliver personalised experiences to customers, including language, currency, payment methods, and logistics services.

It also offers integration with various marketing solutions, payment providers, and other systems, and provides APIs for developers to customise the platform. 

The deal strengthens the existing partnership between the two companies, with several H&M brands, including COS, ARKET, & Other Stories and Weekday, transitioning to Centra’s platform last year.

The tech firm currently supports over 300 brands across Europe, North America and Asia, with recent additions including John Smedley, Osprey London, Fond Of, and MP Denmark.

The move comes as recent data from Shopify shows that global e-commerce sales are expected to grow from USD $6.09 trillion in 2024 to USD $6.56 trillion in 2025, with leaders in the field currently including China, United States, Japan, United Kingdom and Germany.

H&M said the investment will help support Centra’s next phase of global growth and innovation with a specific focus on optimising the platform’s services and accelerating research and development (R&D) efforts across its direct-to-consumer (DTC), fashion wholesale (B2B), and omnichannel capabilities.

Nanna Andersen, chief of new growth and ventures at H&M Group, said that Centra's journey has been fundamental to the success of the investment.

“Their ability to combine deep industry insights with technical innovation is helping fashion brands solve real challenges in e-commerce,” she added.

Centra said the capital injection will help the company continue its mission of global expansion while remaining true to its unique identity.

The platform emphasised in a statement that while H&M investment serves as a strong vote of confidence in Centra’s capabilities, the company remains fully independent, with decisions driven by the needs of its customer base.

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