Clothing sales at the high street chain slumped by a fifth in the four weeks to May 25 compared with the same period a year ago
A heartfelt “big thank you” has been extended to customers following the M&S cyber attack. Competitors in the fashion industry have reportedly benefited from M&S’s temporary halt on online orders, with sales at the retail giant taking a hit, analysts claim.
Marks and Spencer witnessed a downturn in sales, while rivals such as Next, Zara, and H&M saw an uptick, according to market experts. Reports indicate that clothing sales at M&S dropped by 20% in the four weeks leading up to May 25, compared to the same timeframe last year. This decline came after the retailer’s website, which typically represents a third of M&S’s clothing and homeware revenue, ceased accepting orders. The move to suspend online transactions was a response to the extensive cyber attack that left customers astonished.
M&S commented on the cyber-attack as “a moment in time”, highlighting that its brick-and-mortar stores had strong performance “across all fashion categories and particularly womenswear” during the period when web orders were on pause.
A statement said: “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 enjoyed a surge in brand sales growth, climbing to 4.8% from a previous 1.6%.
Retail analyst James Grzinic from Jefferies interpreted this as evidence that Next had been “benefiting from the digital disruption seen by major peer [M&S]”, reports Birmingham Live.
However, Primark’s growth dipped to 2.7% from 3.1%. Mr Grzinic noted this “confirms that [Primark’s] lack of online exposure prevented any market share gains from [M&S’s] online fallout”.
On June 10, M&S informed their customers that they “can now place online orders with standard delivery to England, Scotland and Wales”, and further deliveries to Northern Ireland are set to follow shortly.
The high-street favourite also announced the comeback of click and collect, next-day, nominated-day delivery services, as well as international ordering options in upcoming weeks.
John Lyttle, the managing director for fashion, home and beauty at M&S, said in a social media update: “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.”
He added: “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 has reassured its customer base: “We’re working hard to resume these services as soon as possible.”