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Marks & Spencer extends click-and-collect service to increase online sales

Sadiyah Ismailjee
28 February 2020

Marks & Spencer has extended its click & collect next-day orders cut-off by a further three hours in the UK to 11pm. The retailer has taken this step in order to increase online sales and boost store footfall.

The UK click & collect market is expected to be worth almost £10 billion by 2023, M&S said the new extension “is an important part of better serving customers for the future.”

Marks & Spencer said it experiences nearly 9 million website visits a week and is also trialling new two-hour express click & collect service across 17 of its larger stores.

The retailer highlighted that around 70% of its online orders are collected in store, and building a digitally-connected store network (including food-only stores) is crucial for online growth. Last year, Marks and Spencer made 170 of its convenience locations as collection points, this included stores in BP garages, railway stations and hospitals.

Marks and Spencer aims to target 30% of its sales online by 2022, from 22% currently.  The business has made these improvements to make shopping easier and more convenient for busy families across the UK.

The retailer said these customers are more likely to shop online in the evening between 7pm to 10pm. Although, around 5% of all Marks and Spencer orders are placed between 10pm to 11pm, this will allow hundreds of thousands of customers to benefit from this change.

M&S said over 50% of its online customers opt to collect the next day and stressed the most common collection time is lunchtime as nearly 30% of orders are collected between mid-day and 2pm. The retailer also noted that other peak pick up times is around 5pm when customers are on their way home from work.

Head of M&S.com, Simon Wood said: "M&S is changing and we’ve got an ambitious target to have one third of our Clothing sales online by 2022, to do this we must improve how we serve our increasingly busy customers. Our free click and collect service is already incredibly popular and in the last 12 months we’ve made it even more convenient by adding pick-up points at our railway station stores and other smaller store locations."

"The latest improvement will enable thousands more customers to benefit from the service – by catering for that pre-bedtime browse and shop window between 10pm and 11pm."

In addition, the new express service is being trailed in 17 bigger stores including Cheshire Oaks, Manchester and London’s Oxford Street, where online customers can collect their parcel two hours later. M&S is monitoring the trial closely to consider where and when it might roll out further.

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