M&S hits multi-channel targets
Marks & Spencer is on track to reach its goal of £500 million in sales from its M&S Direct operation in 2010/11 following a 49 per cent rise in revenues from the channel in the first half of this financial year.
This is nearly double the 27 per cent growth achieved for the previous full year and is a cornerstone of a growth strategy based around multi-channel retailing.
M&S launched a mobile shopping app in May, claiming a first-mover advantage, and has now gained over 1.3 million unique users. At the same time, it is looking to re-platform to accelerate growth. According to the retailer, “the Amazon platform performs well, but will restrict our future growth.”
Investment into new infrastructure is being made to drive M&S’s “Shop Your Way” service which enables customers to place clothing, beauty and homeware orders either in stores, online or over the phone. They can then opt for delivery to either a nominated address or free to their nearest store for collection.
Since starting a trial in July 2009, the service has now been rolled out to 300 stores. M&S says 13 per cent of its customers order online for in-store collection. Sales of food online, including wine, flowers and party food, have reached £80 million and are forecast to hit £150 million by 2013. Multichannel retailing overall is forecast to deliver up to £1 billion in sales in three years’ time.