H&M Group Pioneers Edge Computing in Retail with Avassa

The retail industry is undergoing a paradigm shift, modernizing how to manage and operate in-store infrastructure and applications. As retail enterprises expand their digital footprint, it’s clear that some critical applications must run outside of the cloud, in-side the physical store environment. However, challenges like cloud delivery outages, diverse hardware stacks, and cybersecurity threats make managing these distributed environments complex.

The Avassa Edge Platform is an application-centric solution for on-site retail application and infrastructure management, ensuring precise control over application orchestration and monitoring across numerous store locations. Purpose-built for edge, Avassa simplifies security, scalability, and operational efficiency, allowing retailers to maintain resilient and high-performing edge workloads.

H&M Group has selected the Avassa Edge Platform as a key component in a broader redesign and innovation initiative for their in-store IT infrastructure, allowing them to seamlessly extend their applications to the in-store environment using Platform Engineering principles known from the cloud.

The Challenge: Scaling In-Store Application Operations To Boost Innovation

As a global fashion leader with over 4,000 stores in more than 75 countries, H&M Group continuously pushes the boundaries of innovation in retail. However, managing in-store applications across thousands of store locations posed significant challenges:

• Too many manual actions: Deploying and maintaining applications in-store required extensive manual actions, slowing down IT operations.
• Lack of comprehensive overview: Limited visibility into in-store application performance and operations made it difficult to ensure consistency and application health.
• Hindered innovation cycle: Unlike cloud-based applications, in-store software was constrained by infrastructure limitations, making it challenging to implement new digital experiences at scale.

H&M Group was looking for a solution to bridge the gap between cloud agility and in-store IT, enabling seamless application management and rapid innovation in-store.

The Solution: The Avassa Edge Platform

To address these challenges, H&M Group selected the Avassa Edge Platform, an application-centric platform purpose-built for edge environments. By integrating Avassa into their in-store IT infrastructure, H&M Group benefits from the Avassa Edge Platform capabilities, including:

• Multi-tenancy: A shared platform enabling multiple application teams to manage their respective in-store workloads with ease.
• Offline capabilities: Applications remain autonomous and operational even during connectivity outages, ensuring uninterrupted customer experiences.
• Scalability and automation: Full lifecycle management, monitoring, and streamlined operations across store locations using Platform Engineering principles.

With Avassa, H&M Group can deploy and manage in-store applications as efficiently as cloud applications, ensuring rapid innovation and consistent digital experiences. Furthermore, the in-store environment benefits from a streamlined approach, allowing multiple, and even third party, applications teams to share common infrastructure.

The Impact: Pioneering the Future of Edge Computing in Retail

H&M Group’s investment in Avassa underscores its commitment to building secure, innovative, and future-proof in-store IT. By leveraging the Avassa Edge Platform’s capabilities, H&M Group achieves seamless digital operations and reliable application performance regardless of connectivity conditions. They also benefit from accelerated innovation cycles with an ability to introduce new in-store technologies at the speed of cloud innovation.

H&M Group sets a new standard for how global retailers manage and scale in-store digital infrastructure. Katharina Gromotka, Investment Manager at H&M Group Ventures, affirms this commitment:

“We look forward to continuing to use Avassa as an important component to further enhance our edge computing capabilities across the H&M Group.”

💡 Keep reading: Retail Edge Solutions for Smarter Stores

About H&M Group

H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB (publ) was founded in Sweden in 1947 and is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. H&M’s business idea is to offer fashion and quality at the best price in a sustainable way. In addition to H&M, the group includes the brands COS, Monki, Weekday, & Other Stories, H&M HOME, ARKET and Afound as well as Sellpy. H&M Group’s investment arm H&M Group Ventures makes long-term investments in entrepreneur-led companies working with solutions for a circular and more sustainable fashion industry. Learn more at hmgroup.com and hmgroupventures.com

For more information, please contact:
Amy Simonson, Marketing Manager, Avassa amy@avassa.io | +46 73 026 47 38