Next's Directory Closes On Shop Direct With Another Sales Surge

Online sales at clothing and home retailer Next soared in the past three months as online demand continued to rise rapidly.

Despite concerns among City of London investors that prospects for the online market in the UK may be over-inflated, Next's Directory sales increased 13.7% in the 13 weeks to April 26.

The growth means that Next's Directory business could approach £1.5 billion sales this financial year after reaching £1.34 billion last year on growth of 12.4%.

That would put is catalogue and directory sales tantalisingly close to the biggest online pureplay retailer Shop Direct, whose sales are around £1.5 billion.

The retailer said total Next brand sales increased 10.8% which included Next Retail sales of 8.8%. It said it now expected pretax profit for the year to be between £750 million and £790 million, up from previous guidance of between £730 million and £770 million.

That compares to profit last year of £695 million. Next warned that, while sales over the next two quarters were against easier comparisons last year, it would be tougher in the final quarter over Christmas when the increasingly popular Next experienced a sales boom among shoppers.

Many commentators have put Next's success down to its firm application of its discount periods with a flash sale mid-season and a longer end of season sale. Many UK clothing retailers employ more frequent discounts which have annoyed more loyal shoppers who find prices on the products they buy cut within weeks or days of them making a purchase.

Feelunique Prompts IPO Rumours With Hire Of Former Lovefilm Executive

Feelunique.com has appointed former Lovefilm finance boss Jim Buckle prompting rumours of a sale of the businesses.

Buckle is the latest senior hire following the appointment of chief executive Joel Palix from Clarins in January. Buckle most recently worked at private equity-backed Wiggle, which has long been linked with a possible IPO.

Crucially, he was chief financial officer at Lovefilm for five years before it was sold to Amazon and subsequently became managing director. He joined Wiggle a year ago.

The executive has also worked for a number of other firms where he has played a key role in raising funds and mapping out strategic options. Those include working as an adviser to management at travel firm My Destination and at car booking service Safer Taxi.

Buckle is expected to join the firm next Tuesday, May 6, according to Fashion Monitor.

Wiggle attracted attention in March when it revealed plans for a stock market float in a job advert placed in the Financial Times.

The online cycling retailer placed an advert in the newspaper for a chief financial officer - evidently to replace Buckle - which stated that 'IPO experience would be an advantage'. Wiggle is currently owned by private equity firm Bridgepoint and the advert was placed by retail headhunter MBS Group.

Bridgepoint told Financial News at the time: 'We would naturally look for IPO experience in our CFO in order to keep our options open about the potential capital structure of the business in future. However, the board has made no decision about this nor has it appointed any advisers on the subject.'

It is understood that no advisers had been appointed but that a sale or float could be considered next year. Wiggle previously considered an IPO in 2011 but was instead sold by Isis Equity Partners to Bridgepoint for £180 million.

Morrisons Sets Date For London Online Blitz - One Month Ahead Of Schedule

As we said last week, Morrisons and Ocado have been preparing for something big - which we suspected was the long awaited Morrisons.com entry into to the London market.

On Friday we reported Ocado was recruiting 1,000 staff for a number of business areas - but most notably its London-based hubs. Today the Financial Times newspaper reports that Morrions will begin selling groceries online in London on May 12, a month earlier than planned.

The plan perhaps explains why Ocado has been recruiting like mad - and particularly around key London satellite hubs in Wimbledon and Ruislip.

Morrisons signed a £200 million partnership with Ocado a year ago and is using the internet delivery firm's new giant automated hub at Dordon in the Midlands. Morrisons.com launched in January and was extended to include Yorkshire a month later.

In a similar manner to the Yorkshire plan, which allows Morrisons to use Ocado's Leeds hub to deliver, Morrisons will use to Ruislip centre to access around 400,000 households in northwest London, the FT says. It has apparently chosen Ruislip because it gives it access to a diverse ethnic population mix which will give it a solid base of information about habits and demands as it extends into the wider London area.

Ocado and Morrisons operate online by shipping all their food for delivery to two main automated hubs in Hatfield in north London (used by Ocado) and Dordon (share by the two firms). It then sends out either vans for local deliveries or lorries to about a dozen satellite hubs which then dock and transfer goods to sprinter vans.

Morrisons is also expected to share space in the Ruislip satellite hub with Ocado.

Morrisons plans to serve 50 per cent of UK households online by the end of the year. It is also expected to begin offering a click and collect service in the second half as it tries to catch up with long-established dotcom business built up by Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda.

As with its key rivals, Morrisons stores are under threat from discounters Aldi and Lidl and it appears to have suffered at their hands more than the other big three supermarkets. It announced in March its latest strategy overhaul that included £1 billion price cuts over three years.

PetsPyjamas.com Drafts In Gracia Amico As Chief Executive

Former Hobbs fashion chain digital director Gracia Amico has been appointed to lead rapidly growing pets website PetsPyjamas.com.

Gracia Amico left Hobbs, where she was a board director, in February after a year in the business. She began in her new role as chief executive at PetsPyjamas.com last week.

Amico told the Mail on Sunday she has previously spoken with one of the sites co-founders Karen Hanton about taking a role and recently decided the 'time was right' to join the business.

Hanton previously set up restaurant booking site TopTable which was sold in 2010 to US rival Open Table for £35 million. She is understood to have received a £16 million windfall from the sale.

Amico told the newspaper: 'This market is growing fast. There’s a humanisation of pets at the moment, which means they are increasingly treated as just another member of the family.'

She said she was attracted by the 'holistic' approach of the business. About half its revenue this year is expected to come from services such as dog walking, pet-friendly holidays and pet-sitting.

The site is the latest in a string of online ventures in the £4 billion market. AstarPets was launched last month, backed by Quentin Griffiths, co-founder of online fashion retailer Asos. And last year Ocado began its first non-food website, Fetch.co.uk, targeting pet owners.

Amico formerly also worked at Burberry and Topman as well as setting up a jewellery site in the first part of last decade. PetsPyjamas.com employs about 20 people and sells about 8,000 products.

She said she expects to brush up the technical blueprint of the site before taking the offer overseas. Target markets for dedicated sites will include the US, Germany, Hong Kong and China, she said.

SecretSales.com Raises £4.5m For Next Phase Of Growth

London-based flash sales site SecretSales.com has raised £4.5 million to fund new growth and infrastructure plans.

The new investment has come from Partech Ventures’ new flagship Partech VI fund and French private equity firm 123Venture. Existing investors Pentech and Doughty Hanson have also contributed alongside co-founders and brothers Nish Kukadia and Sach Kukadia and key managers.

It is the third wave of fund-raising by the fashion-led site and follows 2010's £6.3 million from a syndicate that included Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures, Pentech and OCP Innovation, managed by Partech Ventures.

The company plans to use the money to help implement new 'sophisticated' customer acquisition and retention initiatives and grow its infrastructure and technology platform to further support expansion.

Chief executive of SecretSales.com Nish Kukadia said: 'We are delighted to welcome Partech VI and 123Venture as new investors and pleased that our existing shareholders continue to demonstrate their support and commitment through their participation in this latest funding round. We are really excited to now focus on the next stage of our ambitious growth plans for SecretSales.com.'

Philippe Collombel, managing partner at Partech Ventures, said: 'Globally, the flash sales market has undergone a revolution where the stronger, data-driven businesses are starting to successfully emerge. We have been consistently impressed by SecretSales.com’s performance and see an opportunity to grow a stand-out British business in this space.'

SecretSales.com increased net sales by 70% last year and has over 3.2 million registered members. It also has a portfolio consisting of 650 brands and recently hosted sales for Christian Louboutin shoes, Gucci sunglasses, Alessi home ware, Victoria Beckham Denim and vintage Chanel handbags.

The company said its competence with mobile commerce is becoming a 'core strength and differentiator'. Smartphones account for 29% of total sales and 26% are made from tablet devices.

In December 2013, SecretSales.com was named as one of the UK's 'Future Fifty' high-growth digital businesses.

Ocado And Morrisons Prepare For Massive Growth Push With 1,000 New Staff

Ocado has launched a massive recruitment drive as it seeks to shore up growth plans for itself and partner Morrisons.

It wants to hire more than 1,000 staff to work at its Dordon centre in Warwickshire, which it shares with Morrisons, as well as its satellite distribution hubs in Wimbledon and Ruislip. It is also recruiting for new projects being worked on at its Hatfield head office.

The recruitment drive has been taken as an indication that the Morrisons push into the Southeast is on the verge of fruition. Morrisons, whose dotcom delivery division is run by Ocado, launched in January but currently only delivers into the Midlands from Dordon and the North via satellites in cities such as Leeds.

So far it has only said its London service will launch 'this summer'.

It is also understood that the new staff will include dozens of technical managers and support staff that will work on upgrading existing sites and new non-food sites.

Sources said Ocado is billing some of the roles to applicants as 'start-up' positions that will aim to help build websites from scratch. It already has one non-food web site with Fetch, targeting pet owners, but aims to have several more.

Ocado said about 800 of the roles will be in the massive distribution hub in Dordon. About 100 more staff are needed at the new hub in Ruislip and 80 in Wimbledon for drivers.

But 100 other roles will be based in its 'technology division' at its head office at Hatfield - including software engineers, tech professionals and technicians.

It said in a statement that the new staff will 'drive Ocado’s game-changing innovation into robotics, machine learning, cloud development and big data, whilst preparing for international expansion.'

Others will include office and operational support staff, analysts, project managers, buyers, human resources professionals and many more.

Julie Markey, HR director at Ocado, said: 'In just a few short years Ocado has grown from a tiny start-up to a company worth over £2.5 billion and we’re delighted to announce the creation of 1,000 new jobs as we continue to develop our business here in the UK and abroad.'

She said: 'Every role is critical to our success, from keeping our website running smoothly, to packing groceries and delivering them into our customers’ kitchens. People can shape their own future; in fact many of those who joined our Dordon team last year have already developed into managerial, engineering or training roles.'

Click & Collect Entering ‘Explosive Growth’ Period In Britain

The number of UK shoppers using click and collect is expected to double in the next three years as more consumers try out a growing number of services from retailers.

The research by Planet Retail estimates that the number of shoppers using click and collect services will increase from about a third (35%) currently to 76% by 2017.

Global research director at Planet Retail Natalie Berg said: ‘Click & collect is poised for explosive growth in the UK. Shoppers are already accustomed to browsing and transacting on their own terms – choice in fulfilment is the final piece to the puzzle. Within the next three years, we’re expecting more than three-quarters of online shoppers to collect their own items.'

She explained: 'Two of the biggest barriers to buying online are cost of delivery and inconvenient delivery times, making click & collect an increasingly attractive option for both shoppers and retailers. Fulfilment is poised to be the next big battleground in retail.'

Research by Planet Retail in the report UK Click & Collect: Retail Fad or Future of the High Street? shows that the number of UK shoppers using click & collect to buy online and self-collect, compares to 13% in the US and 5% in Germany.

But Planet Retail warns that retailers are failing to cater to the shift in shopping behaviour. Only two-thirds of the Top 50 retailers currently offer the service while only 14% offer more than one collection option, including in-store service desks, collection lockers (4%) or third-party shops (12%) such as convenience stores.

'Retailers should be readying themselves for this massive shift in shopping behaviour and thinking beyond traditional collection points. Train stations, schools and even shoppers’ own cars could be the collection points of the future. Retailers must be prepared to forge relationships with some unconventional partners in pursuit of better serving the customer,' Berg said.

The new report highlights strategic partnerships such as those between eBay and Argos, CollectPlus and Westfield, and calls out best practice examples from John Lewis, Next, Amazon, Tesco and Asda, among others.

Yet Another Morrisons Executive Joins Weavers-Wright Innovation Hub Haatch

Morrisons' recently departed digital guru Simon Harrow has teamed up with his old boss from Kiddicare to spearhead a new venture.

Harrow has become the fourth former Morrisons executive to join Haatch, the digital incubator recently launched by former Kiddicare chief executive Scott Weavers-Wright. Harrow said he also plans to run a new start-up for the Haatch group.

Kiddicare was bought by Morrisons in 2011 but the investment was written off last month after the supermarket scrapped plans to create its own digital food delivery business, instead partnering with Ocado.

Dotcom sources have criticised Morrisons for failing to sufficiently invest in the business and its senior management of being unable to foster the right environment for digital talent and innovation.

Harrow was head of Morrisons digital development before revelations of his departure emerged earlier this month. He was formerly chief operating officer at Kiddicare.

Weavers-Wright set up Haatch with his wife and Fred Soneya last year, both of whom also worked at Morrisons. Haatch works across the UK and the US and has a talent scout Chris Allen based in Silicon Valley to seek out innovators and potential investments. Allen was Morrisons' emerging technologies manager until December.

Scott Weavers-Wright said in a statement today: 'We're delighted to have Simon on board. I know how well the rest of the team and Simon work together from our days at Kiddicare so it’s an exciting time for Haatch and Simon’s a great asset to have as we plot our future success.'

Harrow said the new start-up  venture would be 'in addition to helping the Haatch team in seeking out digital ventures looking for support and upfront capital investment'.

Tesco's Delivery Price Cuts Leave Sainsbury's Behind

Tesco today launched a series of initiatives to offer cheaper goods and services to its customers including a £1 grocery delivery slot.

The strategy means that Tesco will be about half as cheap on delivery as its next biggest rival Sainsbury's.

From out initial analysis, Tesco is now offering 21 hourly slots at £1 out of its 98 available weekly slots. That compares to the cheapest slot available at Sainsbury's of £2.99 which is currently available for 8 of its 94 weekly slots.

The next cheapest slot at Sainsbury's is £3.99 compared to £2 at Tesco.

Tesco said its £1 slots would replace the previous £3 slot. Meanwhile, it said Click & Collect grocery, where customers order online and pick up from one of 260 locations in the UK, will be free compared to at least £2 previously.

The delivery price cut came alongside a raft of cuts in the price of its groceries to better compete with the likes of Aldi and Lidl. Last month smaller rival Morrisons also said it would introduce an additional £1 billion of price cuts over three years to help reverse losses.

Morrisons has already introduced cheaper, more simply priced delivery charges at £1, £2 and £3 when it launched its online delivery business in January. Tesco's most expensive price is still £6 which it currently charges before 11am on a Saturday and Sunday morning. 

Tesco also said that, from today, prices will be lower on more than 30 basic products including eggs, bacon, baked beans and butter.

The prices include a reduction from 32p to 13p for a 420g can of own-branded baked beans, a 250g pack of Tesco English slightly salted butter will be 49p cheaper at £1, a 210g pack of Tesco unsmoked bacon will fall by 39p to £1.50 and a pack of six Tesco salad tomatoes will cost 31p less at 69p.

Tesco UK marketing director David Wood said: 'Together with £1 home delivery or free Click & Collect for food shopping, our customers are going to make real savings.'

Sofa.com Appoints Advisers For Possible Sale Of The Business

Furniture etailer Sofa.com has paved the way for a possible sale or float of its business by appointing corporate advisers.

City firm Altium Capital have been drafted in following a raft of highly valued IPOs and fund raisings by firms including fashion firm Boohoo.com and appliances etailer AO.com.

The internet retailer revealed the plan in a statement on Monday. It also announced that sales at the business had increased 20% to £20.2 million in the 12 months to February 28.

It said profit on an adjusted Ebitda basis increased 48% to £5.3 million in the period.

It was revealed earlier this month that rival Made.com has also held talks with potential City advisers in recent weeks as part of plans to raise new funds for growth. It could include raising money though a stock market float or from private venture capital.

Sofa.com founder Rohan Blacker said working with Altium would take the site to 'the next stage of its journey'.

Sofa.com was founded by Blacker and Pat Reeves in 2006. They had previously established the takeaway food delivery business Deliverance in 1997.

We're Back - And So Is Tesco

We're back after an unscheduled break over Easter - and it appears we're just in time.

Not only has the backlash against the dash for cash by the likes of Boohoo.com and AO.com started in earnest over recent weeks (unfairly in our minds), but the UK's biggest retailer Tesco has today made a statement of intent on plans for the internet.

We plan to return over the coming weeks with a financial analysis of the profitability of the grocery delivery model. But, for today, we're going to have a straightforward look at Tesco's newly unveiled plans.

Also today, we cover some news from the weekend about Sofa.com which will join a growing band of other online hopefuls looking to cash in on the huge appetite for online-only growth firms.

Apart from that, let's just add that we have some interesting plans for the site over the coming months - and some interesting stories up our sleeves.

So, stay tuned for the cream of the news about online retailers, our comments, analysis and exclusive stories.

Tesco Plans 'Around 50' Underground-Style Collection Points

Supermarket giant Tesco is planning to introduce another 50 collection points similar to those it has begun testing at London Underground tube stations.

The supermarket said the it would reach the 'non-store' collection point target by February next year and that it would also add a collection service to another 100 stores.

The strategy illustrates the grocer's commitment to a multi-channel model amid concerns that selling food online is less profitable than selling though large supermarkets. Tesco said in January it would launch at six underground sites and it has also tested in other locations such as 'Park and Ride' car parks.

It said today that its grocery home shopping business continued to grow 'strongly'. It said it currently offered collection through 260 Click & Collect points and that it has over 200,000 shoppers which had subscribed to the Delivery Saver scheme.

It also revealed that its dotcom-only warehouse in Erith - one of its so called 'dark' stores - enabled staff to pick products almost three times faster than they did in stores. It said that was an improvement on the Crawley and Enfield dotcom warehouse.

Tesco this morning reported a 6% drop in group trading profit to £3.3 billion. It has faced increasing competition from the likes of Aldi and Lidl alongside rivals Asda and Morrisons.

Chief executive Philip Clarke was forced to defy his critics, telling newswire Reuters that he had 'no intention of going anywhere.'

Sports Direct Plans To Offer Credit To Online Shoppers

Sports Direct plans to offer hard-up consumers credit to use for shopping on its website.

The discount retailer's chief executive Dave Forsey told the Financial Times it would introduce the payment terms later this year. It would be a similar model to that used by traditional catalogue retailers which have historically targeted hard up shoppers.

But it is also one used successfully by the likes of Next which began only accepting customers on a credit basis but then extended the payment terms to include cash.

Forsey said: 'Next is the one we benchmark ourselves against [for this new strategy]. Their delivery options are fantastic for the customer.'

He said he wanted to give customers 'as many different options as possible'.

Next attracted attention recently when the Telegraph reported it was banking £150 million a year in interest charges from customers using its Directory. The numbers were revealed in its annual results last month when it revealed it had overtaken Marks & Spencer in profit terms for the first time.

Supergroup Appoints Jon Wragg E-Commerce Director

Superdry-owner Supergroup has appointed Asda director Jon Wragg to lead its e-commerce business.

Wragg stepped down at Asda late last month and is understood to be among a number of senior departures from the business.

Wragg, who has also worked in Asda's George clothing business, was multi-channel director at Asda until December when he became customer director in a management reshuffle.

He takes over from existing Supergroup e-commerce head Chris Griffin. Online sales at Supergroup increased by almost a quarter in the first-half.

Bonmarché Boosted By Online Fashion Demand From Over 50s

Women's clothing chain Bonmarché said sales in the last three months received a major boost from internet sales to its core over 50s shoppers.

The company said online sales in the 13 weeks to March 29 rose 72.8%. That helped like-for-like sales in the same period rise 16.3%.

Like-for-like sales in the period without the benefit of online sales still rose an impressive 13.5%, the company said.

Chief executive officer Beth Butterwick said: 'I'm delighted with our performance. The growth driven through product, stores and multi-channel initiatives demonstrates our customers' positive reaction to our strategy.'

The performance means that total online sales in the year rose 84.2%. The company is expected to release more details in its full-year results on June 13.

The Times Newspaper Owner Snaps Up Home Furnishings Etailer

Home furnishings website The Handpicked Collection has been acquired by the owner of The Times newspaper for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition by News UK comes after the media group said it discovered readers of the newspaper and its sister paper The Sunday Times made online non-food purchases at least once a week.

The site will be promoted to readers of the newspapers as a perk of subscription membership.

Chief executive of News UK Mike Darcey said in a statement: 'World-class journalism will always be at the heart of the News UK offering. But as part of our business development strategy we are eager to seek out opportunities to deliver added value to our loyal readers.'

He said that the 'quality of the goods offered by The Handpicked Collection are a natural fit for the audiences of The Times and The Sunday Times'. 

Made.com Plans To Raise More Cash For Overseas Growth

Made.com has held talks with potential City advisers in recent weeks as part of plans to raise new funds for growth.

The Notting Hill-based online furniture retailer is examining plans that could include raising money by floating shares via a stock market float or from private venture capital.

Made.com wants to speed up European expansion and open dedicated sites beyond markets where it already operates. It's main markets at present are Britain, France and Italy.

Made.com is backed by Lastminute.com founder Brent Hoberman. The furniture etailer ships goods to customers direct from suppliers.

Marks & Spencer's Online Sales Slow After Web Overhaul

Marks & Spencer today revealed 12.5% increase in online sales over the past three months as it overhauled the business and separated from Amazon.

The increase for the fourth quarter to March 29 was almost half the rise in the previous quarter's 22.7% increase and compared to a 28.5% increase in the first half.

The website has had some teething problems with customers complaining of issues with certain combinations of browsers and devices and other glitches. That may have hampered sales but we also think Marks & Spencer has pulled back on online-specific marketing spending to give it more breathing space to iron out such problems.

The relaunch of the website has involved a switch away from an Amazon-run platform to its own - a major shift in strategy - and cost the company around £150 million.

However, as we said at the weekend, we expect Marks & Spencer to ramp up its promotion of the new site in the coming weeks with a significant push expected in May. That is likely to accelerate growth once more and, the company will hope, help lift lacklustre sales across the group.

Marks & Spencer said overall sales in the UK increased 1.5% with total UK like-for-like sales falling by 0.2%.

Morrisons Digital Boss Simon Harrow Latest Executive To Leave

Simon Harrow has become the latest e-commerce executive to leave Morrisons.

His departure follows the supermarket's decision to eject its digital Kiddicare division last month.

Harrow follows a number of other former Kiddicare executives out of the door including founder Scott Weavers-Wright who left last year as well as George Dymond who joined in January only to leave suddenly just weeks later.

Harrow is head of digital development at the Kiddicare division which has been put up for sale by Morrisons after a shift in strategy.

The supermarket decided to sell the business, which was the centre for its digital innovation, last month after launching its partnership with Ocado.

Achica Promotes Former Tesco Man Steve Robinson To Chief Executive

Homewares site Achica has promoted operations chief Steve Robinson to the position of chief executive.

Robinson, who has previously run M and M Sports and Tesco Direct, was drafted in as chief operating officer in July last year. He replaces founder William Cooper who will take the chairman's role.

Quentin Griffiths, Cooper's co-founder, also helped set up Asos.com. 

Members-only site Achica plans to increase international sales as well as extending its ranges and improving the website over the next 12 months. It mainly sells discounted, higher value furniture and home products.

Cooper said Robinson had 'already played an instrumental role' and described the company's future targets as 'ambitious'.

Robinson said: 'Having been trading for four years, Achica is still a relatively new business and it is growing rapidly in size, product offer and operations. The company has achived some notable landmarks in the past few months including membership reaching 3 million, the launch of the first flashsales antiques department, a new ad campagin based on the theme of 'discovery' and acceptance into the Government 'Future Fifty' scheme for high-growth businesses.'

'The coming years will be critical in growing Achica as the business looks to expand domestically and internationally.'

Ocado Set To Sizzle With New Kitchen And Dining Website

Grocery delivery firm Ocado is poised to launch a new website called Sizzle.co.uk as it seeks to shift its reliance from its core food business.

The kitchen and dining products website will be the second non-food site from the firm after it launched pet accessories store Fetch.co.uk last year, Fetch.co.uk already offers more than 6,000 products.

Sizzle.co.uk is expected to have around 12,000 products and will try to cut into a slice of the department store market while not deviating too far from Ocado's roots.

Sizzle.co.uk and Fetch.co.uk are part of a wider strategy by Ocado to extend its interests away from its core site through which it sells its own brand food and Waitrose products. It launched Morrison.com in a £216 million partnership with the supermarket in January and has also been in talks with foreign partners.

It is understood to be considering other product areas which would fit into a broader 'home' theme such as baby or outdoor products.

Sizzle.co.uk will be launched in a limited test region before it is rolled out nationally this summer.

Marks & Spencer To Launch Major Internet Push Next Month

You’d be forgiven for thinking Marks & Spencer’s new website looks like a million dollars. Actually, it’s a £150 million, to be precise.

That was the cost of the relaunch - so was it worth it? Broadly speaking, the consensus is in the affirmative. Could it have been done for less money? Very probably. But through three years, a reasonable amount of pain and a lot of customers who will always be disappointed when things are less than perfect, we are finally more or less there.

And given the massive overhaul and the split from its previous partner Amazon you could forgive M&S for the various teething problems which have emerged.

The past six or seven weeks since the relaunch have been littered with issues - some large like the crash during launch week and some small: customers having to re-log their details, some browsers not working too well with some devices, glitches that meant customers inexplicably reverted back to the homepage.

Then, late last month, one of the key architects behind the site Darrell Stein left the company in a surprise move that left everyone speculating just how bruised he was with the experience.

But the company is hoping to shrug off those teething problems in a few weeks time. February was regarded by the company as a ‘soft’ launch. Our sources tell us that the company aims to conduct a major marketing push for the the website beginning May 1 that will seek to prove the worth of all its labours.

Given the amount of money it seems to have made available for the project so far, let’s assume that it will not be short of funds to promote the push. Expect blanked coverage in the press, interviews with its e-commerce executive Laura Wade-Gery and lots of adverts and promotional activity. Not signed up yet - might be best to wait until then.

Next week Marks & Spencer will release its latest trading figures and within that will break out online trading. We suspect things will have slowed down a little from the stellar growth the site was seeing last year.

But, barring any major problems, that will all change next month. The power behind the site should be enough to finally give Next and John Lewis a few problems and will leave some of its other rivals looking very shoddy indeed.

Boohoo.com Earmarks 60% Rise In Advertising Spend

Boohoo.com is poised to make a marketing ‘land grab’ for customers over the coming months in an effort to capitalise on the massive publicity around its recent stock market float.

The sale of shares made founders Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane millionaires last month and now they have to prove the faith of investors was deserved.

Boohoo.com has earmarked a 60 per cent rise in its marketing budget this year to help achieve that, our sources have told us. It is a huge increased which, if translated into a similar rise in sales, would see the firm’s turnover rise to more than £170 million in the financial year to next February.

The push comes as the owners of a host of other young fashion web sites such as Missguided.co.uk aim to emulate the good fortune of Boohoo and Asos founders.

Although the market could get increasingly crowded over the next couple of years Boohoo.com hopes to have a clear early-mover advantage over other competitors.

Jaeger Boosts Web Team With Three Senior Appointments

Jaeger has made a raft of new hires to strengthen its e-commerce team following a £7.5 million investment boost last week.

Chinese Web Giant Alibaba Hedges On Click & Collect With Department Store Deal

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has invested £430 million in a Chinese department store operator in an apparent attempt to grow its exposure to off-line retailing.

Asos Reports Its First Profit Decline In Years As It Ramps Up Expansion Plans

Fashion phenomenon Asos has reported a decline in profit as it sets aside more money to invest in a £2.5 billion growth plan.

My-Wardrobe Founder Andrew Curran Leaves For The Second Time

Fashion etailer My-Wardrobe.com has received another blow after it emerged last night that co-founder Andrew Curran has left the business.

Victoria Plumb Snapped Up By TPG In £200 Million Deal

Kitchen and bathroom etailer Victoria Plumb has been acquired by US private equity giant TPG in a deal worth an estimated £200 million.

Mothercare's Olga Nazarkova Takes On Group E-Commerce Role

Mothercare's Olga Nazarkova has extended her e-commerce responsibilities across the group as the company braces for another strategic overhaul.