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Feb 28, 2020
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M&S aims to boost e-sales with click & collect developments

Published
Feb 28, 2020

Clothing giant M&S is aiming to give a serious boost to its website business and also to drive store footfall and has extended its click & collect next-day orders cut-off by a further three hours in the UK to 11pm. 


M&S wants to drive web sales and in-store footfall higher with an improved click & collect offer - M&S


 
The retailer, which claims nearly 9 million website visits a week, is also trialling new two-hour express click & collect service across 17 of its larger stores.
 
Noting the UK click & collect market is expected to be worth almost £10 billion by 2023, M&S said the newly improved proposition “is an important part of better serving customers for the future.”
 
Currently around 70% of its online orders are collected in an M&S store, and building a digitally-connected store network (including food-only stores) is vital for online growth, it stressed. Last year the retailer introduced 170 of its convenience locations as collection points, including stores in BP garages, railway stations and hospitals.
 
The retailer, which is targeting 30% of its sales online by 2022, from 22% currently, said the improvement is designed to make shopping easier and more convenient for busy families across the UK. 
 
It said these customers most commonly browse online in the evening (with a 7pm-10pm peak). However, around 5% of all M&S orders are placed between 10pm and 11pm meaning hundreds of thousands of customers will benefit from this change. While occasionally customers do order later, 10pm-11pm is also the most popular time in the UK to go to bed so the vast majority of orders are before 11pm.
 
M&S said over 50% of its online customers opt to collect the next day and noted the most popular collection time is lunchtime, with nearly 30% of orders being collected between mid-day and 2pm. There’s another peak later on (around 5pm) as customers travel home from work.
 
Meanwhile, 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. 
 
Simon Wood, head of M&S.com, 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. 
 
“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.” 
 
Alongside this change M&S also said it continues to make improvements across its online business – including the mobile browsing experience. This is critical for busy parents as 74% of kidswear searches on its website come from a mobile device, the highest for any M&S category.

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