A new website and an extended range of products are just two of the reasons behind M&S Direct’s strong growth.

M&S Direct is an important part of our commitment to becoming a multi-channel retailer. In addition to providing our e-commerce website, it also includes our home catalogue, flower and wine delivery, Christmas hamper delivery, in-store food ordering service and Lunch to Go, which delivers lunchtime platters.

Sales were up £60m in 2007/08 to £220m, with M&S Direct growing faster than the market, and putting us on course to achieve our target of £500m in sales through M&S Direct by the end of 2010/11.

Visits to the website were also up by nearly 60%.

The Autograph brand is about effortless style and luxury and the new range of Autograph Flowers reflects this perfectly, either as a gift, or as an amazing centrepiece in the home.

Claire Broomhead

M&S Flowers Specialist

 

A new site, a new experience

Relaunched at the end of March 2007, our website was designed and developed in partnership with world leaders in e-commerce, Amazon. Our customers tell us they find the new site much easier to use; a fact reflected in an independent online shopper survey by Forsee ranking the ‘Top 30’ UK online retailers. We came sixth overall and were the best performing high street retailer, ahead of competitors like John Lewis, Tesco and Next.

But there’s still plenty of room for improvement. In particular, we want to make the site more interactive. We’ve already added features such as a behind-the-scenes video interview with Lily Cole (the face of Limited Collection). Additionally, we publish beauty tips and lingerie advice from the Your M&S magazine editor Sarah Gowland. In 2008/09, we’re planning to add even more of these features, including areas for customers to post reviews and ratings of M&S products.

Spoilt for choice

Each year we move closer towards becoming a true multi-channel retailer, by offering our customers more ways to shop. For instance, a customer might see a sofa they like in our home catalogue, and decide to try it out in-store. They then have the choice of visiting our website, where they can see every sofa, in every fabric, size or colour combination – as many as 10,000 variations.

More reasons to visit

Our website offers a number of exclusive products, including a wider choice of electricals than in-store, an increased selection in clothing ranges such as per una, and our exclusive online range of affordable and contemporary furniture called Furniture to Go.

Our new ‘Made to Measure’ shirts service, which launched in November 2007, allows customers to design a tailor-made shirt from just £30 for delivery within 21 days. Customers simply choose their fabric, collar, cuffs, pocket, fit and monogramming, and type in their height, collar size and weight, and we’ll tailor-make a shirt specifically for them.

A number of other popular features on our website include our Greener Living shop, improved wine cellar and Big and Tall range.