THE St Helens H&M store is set to close.

The store, which has been a feature of Church Square Shopping Centre for seven years confirmed plans to close its branch on September 25.

An alert sent to H&M members read: "We'll miss being a part of the St Helens community, but don't worry, H&M is still here for you. You can find your nearest store on Lord Street, Liverpool, or in Warrington, and don't forget we're always online."

A H&M spokesperson added: “During the last few years, we have seen a rapid change in customer behaviour that we cannot ignore.

“We continuously need to evaluate and develop our business to meet our customers’ needs and offer the best possible shopping experience, whether it’s online or in our physical stores.

“Our ambition is to continue investing in our customers, open new stores where we see opportunities and develop our digital channels.

“We continuously evaluate how we should invest in stores and sometimes decisions must be made to enable long-term growth.

“This means that we sometimes need to close stores. This decision has now been made for our St Helens store.

“Customer behaviour is constantly changing, and we need to adapt accordingly. We want to be where our customers are.

“The physical store is still extremely important to us and will be a place for customers to shop, discover and be inspired.

“At H&M, we are constantly working to integrate physical and digital stores, we want to find the strength in each channel and make the customer journey smooth.”

It is believed that the closure will affect eight staff members, with the aim of transferring most to other branches.