Good service continues to be a priority at M&S. In addition to training and developing our in-store staff so that they consistently perform well, we’re also investing behind the scenes to improve our logistics and IT infrastructure. This investment will allow us to efficiently run our supply chain and IT systems so that stock is managed tightly and transactions are processed effectively.

Mystery shopping

Each of our stores is anonymously visited once a month – twice in the case of our larger flagship stores – by a mystery shopper who evaluates service quality. In 2007/08 that was the equivalent of some 6,240 visits to our stores. We’re pleased with the outcome, as our teams achieved a new record average score – 86%.

The mystery shopping programme was developed in partnership with a customer panel to help us identify where we need to support our stores with additional training. As a result the questions and scoring system accurately reflect our customers’ priorities, such as the standard of our fitting rooms.

Supporting our growth

Supporting our people behind the scenes, our supply chain and IT systems play a crucial part in ensuring our stores perform efficiently, and provide maximum customer satisfaction.

For our supply chain, the challenge in 2007/08 was to handle significantly increased volumes, while remaining cost-effective. Despite the growth of M&S Direct, increasing sales volumes and more direct buying from our suppliers, our supply chain coped well under these pressures, delivering 13% more stock to our stores, and responding to a 63% rise in volume from M&S Direct.

A more efficient future

The majority of our supply chain’s physical infrastructure – the warehouses and distribution centres – has remained unchanged since the 1970s. The next major requirement is to develop a world class infrastructure that will support us not just in the UK but around the world.

Having formed a strategic partnership with logistics property organisation ProLogis, we’ve been working together to build a new warehouse in Bradford (see picture below).

This will play an important role in increasing the speed and efficiency of our supply chain, and further reducing costs.

From source to store

As we expand our business internationally, we’re planning to take more control of our logistics from source to store, allowing us to monitor our stock more efficiently and improve margins.

We plan to develop a modern and streamlined logistics network that consists of new overseas warehouses, as well as offshore stockholding and consolidation facilities.

Remodelling our supply chain infrastructure is a major investment that will help us stay one step ahead of demand in our market for the fresh and new. Fast fashion, for example, is about to get faster still.

Getting our IT in shape for growth

At the same time as renewing our physical network, we have also made progress in IT. We now have an integrated company-wide IT plan; a three-year roadmap that sets out how our systems will deliver on every aspect of our business plan, both within the UK and internationally. This means, for example, that our IT strategy for China – where we are only just establishing a foothold – is already in place.

The plan has helped us to develop faster and more efficient IT systems throughout our business. For instance, we are introducing new point of sale systems, including more than 2,000 new tills and 258 new handheld terminals in-store to make stockchecking easier and more efficient. This will help us further improve service in our stores. We extended the trial of our food self-service tills across the business, as well as a first trial in general merchandise.

We also made vital behind the scenes improvements with the introduction of new financial and back-office systems. Both of these changes are behind an overall increase in operational efficiency, with 97% of our tills fully operational, up from 90% two years previously.

At the same time as achieving these important improvements, we also succeeded in reducing like-for-like IT running costs by 13.5%.