M&S fashion rivals have “benefited” from its pause on online orders with sales at the high street giant slumping, according to analysts.
M&S offers ‘big thank you’ to millions of customers after cyber-attack
A “big thank you” has been issued after the M&S cyber attack. M&S fashion rivals have “benefited” from its pause on online orders with sales at the high street giant slumping, according to analysts.
Marks & Spencer’s sales slumped, while Next, Zara and H&M experienced pickup, analysts have said.. Clothing sales at M&S slumped by a fifth in the four weeks to 25 May compared with the same period a year ago, reports show.
That was after the website, which usually accounts for a third of M&S’s clothing and homeware sales, stopped taking orders. The decision to take orders offline came in the wake of the massive cyber attack which stunned shoppers.
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M&S said the cyber-attack was “a moment in time”, and its stores had performed well “across all fashion categories and particularly womenswear” when orders on its website were paused.
“This underlines the strength of our product offer – where quality and value perceptions remain market-leading and style perceptions continuing to increase – and loyalty of our customers. A big thank you to them for shopping with us.”
Next brand sales growth rose to 4.8% from 1.6%. James Grzinic, a retail analyst at Jefferies, said this showed the brand had been “benefiting from the digital disruption seen by major peer [M&S]”.
But Primark growth fell to +2.7% from 3.1%. This “confirms that [Primark’s] lack of online exposure prevented any market share gains from [M&S’s] online fallout”, said Grzinic.
On June 10, M&S said customers “can now place online orders with standard delivery to England, Scotland and Wales”, while deliveries to Northern Ireland will resume in the coming weeks.
It said it would also resume click and collect, next-day and nominated-day delivery and international ordering in the coming weeks.
In a social media post, John Lyttle, the retailer’s managing director for fashion, home and beauty, said: “We are bringing back online shopping this week. A selection of our best-selling fashion ranges will be available for home delivery to England, Scotland and Wales from today.
“More of our fashion, home and beauty products will be added every day and we will resume deliveries to Northern Ireland and click and collect in the coming weeks.”
M&S added: “We’re working hard to resume these services as soon as possible.”