Marks & Spencer To Be 'Net-a-Porter For The Masses'

Marks & Spencer's online boss Laura Wade-Gery has told a private meeting of City investors she plans to turn the company's internet business into a 'Net-a-Porter for the masses'.

The executive director of multi-channel and ecommerce told the meeting, organised by broker Espirito Santo, that it was essential to tell a 'fashion story' and with a 'curated' range rather than an unedited range of clothing and accessories on the site.

She acknowledged the business had fallen behind its high street peers but was now broadly in line and with a goal to have a 'market-leading multichannel offer'.

She said the site needed to target women in their 30s but with the knowledge that 'the 50-plus woman is key' and represents the majority of the customers.



The broker said it was clear from the conversation that changes to the multichannel operation are accelerating and that improvements under Wade-Gery are 'tangible'. But it said it remains to be seen whether it can alter its cost base - in particular its property portfolio - to cope with the change in customer habits.


The meeting also revealed that 25-30 per cent of customers browsed online before visiting a store and that 85 per cent of returns from online orders were made to the stores.

Wade-Gery also said she wants to streamline systems because, for example, product ordered over the internet for collection still needs to be delivered separately for the distribution centre even if the store itself has the item in stock.

The broker reported that Wade-Gery appeared to dismiss the idea of selling food online. 'It is clear that Wade-Gery is not looking to sell food online, outside of the click and collect offer for special occasions, said the broker's analyst Sanjay Vidyarthi, who organised the meeting.

'Interestingly, no attempt (or indeed consideration) was made to distribute food from Castle Donnington [the distribution centre that opens next year] and Wade-Gery argued that it is less obvious to add food to a gneral merchandise platform that general merchandise to  food, as supermarkets such as Tesco have done,' he said.

Marks & Spencer has added nine 'local' general merchandise sites selling clothing and homewares internationally as it seeks to grow overseas, he said.