NEW DELHI: Swedish fast-fashion brand Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) will start selling online in India next year. The move comes a few months after global rival Zara made public its intention of going online in the country, one of the world's fastest growing e-commerce markets."India will be a new H&M online market in 2018," the company said in its six-month report. Zara will start online operations this year.H&M plans to start online operations next year in some other markets as well. However, the names of those countries aren't known yet.H&M, whose performance in India has been remarkable in the apparel retail market, turned profitable within its first six months of operations here.Its latest annual report said its India unit posted Rs 445 crore in sales for the year through November 2016. The brand had announced it will open 50 stores with an investment of Rs 700 crore by 2020.The H&M group is aggressively expanding its online presence. It has online presence in 41 markets.It is expecting online sales to increase by at least 25 per cent per year, with profitability in line with that of the physical stores.In some established markets, online sales already account for 2530 per cent of total sales for the brand. It recently started online stores in Turkey, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Malaysia and will also add the Philippines and Cyprus to this list in 2017."We are in a strong position, with well-known global brands suited to both physical stores and online sales, and we are financially strong and can invest at the pace required," the report added.