H&M operated 2,325 stores at the end of 2011, and 2,629 stores at the end of August 2012. Its worth was estimated at $12–16 billion. Following expansion in Asia and the Middle East and the launch of concept stores including COS, Weekday, Monki, and Cheap Monday, in 20, branding consultancy Interbrand ranked the company as the twenty-first most-valuable global brand, making it the highest-ranked retailer in the survey. Initially distributed through the company's online catalog, there are now H&M Home stores located internationally. In 2008, the company announced in a press release that it would begin selling home furnishings. store on 31 March 2000, on Fifth Avenue in New York City marked the start of the expansion outside of Europe.

The two-letter domain was registered 1997, according to data available via Whois. H&M continued to expand in Europe and began to retail online in 1998 when bought the domain hm.com from a company called A1 in a non-published domain transaction. Shortly after, in 1976, the first store outside Scandinavia opened in London. The company was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1974. In 1968, Persson acquired the hunting apparel retailer Mauritz Widforss in Stockholm, which led to the inclusion of a menswear collection in the product range and the name change to Hennes & Mauritz. The shop, called Hennes (Swedish for 'hers'), exclusively sold women's clothing. The company was founded by Erling Persson in 1947, when he opened his first shop in Västerås, Sweden.

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