M&S SHARES WHAT WILL BE ON OFFER ON JUNE 15TH
Last week M&S shared plans to help customers shop with confidence: from friendly colleagues on the door managing the flow of customers, to extensive signage, to Perspex screens at tills. The team will be using their vast experience of trading as a Food retailer throughout this unprecedented time and whilst things will look and feel different, it will be the great customer service customers expect of M&S.
With one week to go until the planned opening of the majority of the retailers’ space in England, today M&S is sharing what will be on offer for all the family when it reopens and how that offer has adapted to suit families’ needs. As well as products, the team have been thinking about services, and where services such as bra fit remain paused, M&S will be directing customers to its enhanced online tool – this simple to use guide has proved popular already and visits to the page on M&S’s website are already up nearly 500%.
Kids
As the little ones have continued to grow and have spent less time in uniform, staple items have been in demand. Last year M&S overhauled its kids product range to become a little less “special occasion” and more everyday style and it’s proved popular on M&S.com. M&S has a delivery of 65,000 products landing ahead of June 15th to ensure mums and dads can pick up what they need – from tees to joggers. Many of these items will be in M&S’s 3 for 2 bundle. To ensure a great offer is available, M&S stores will be growing the space dedicated to kids by up to 30%.
Summer Product
Throughout the great weather, summer product has been consistently popular on M&S.com, with shorts a top 10 search for the last 3 weeks. With some customers now able to meet friends & family outdoors, these items are set to continue in popularity and M&S is bringing in new summer stock to ensure a great offer on the shop floor – from light T-shirts, to dresses that are perfect for a BBQ, to plenty of sun cream in its beauty sections.
Father’s Day
Life’s little and big moments have continued and M&S stores will be set up for them – from kids shoes for first steps (and first steps into school), to maternity bras, to cakes and cards for those special birthdays. With this time making many think more of family, Father’s Day has been searched online earlier than ever before – appearing as a top 20 search on M&S.com from the end of May. Throughout M&S stores there’ll be plenty on offer for Dad and clear signage helping customers find those items. All of Menswear will also remain at buy 4 items for the price of 3 (for those who want to help Dad overhaul his wardrobe this June).
Activewear
Categories that have remained popular throughout lockdown on M&S.com will also be a big focus in M&S stores including activewear. Throughout this period M&S activewear has been incredibly popular (with online searches for activewear up 90% since the beginning of March) and the team expects this to continue – M&S stores that offer Good Move, which launched in January, will have a great selection available when they reopen.
Rainbow Sale
Great value will be on offer in all M&S stores – from unbeatable priced essentials (womenswear T-shirts starting from £6.50 and leggings from £7.50), to great offers such as 3 for 2 on kidswear, to M&S’s Rainbow Sale. All stores will sell items from M&S’s Rainbow sale which launched online three weeks ago and has resonated with M&S’s customers – over half a million shoppers browsed it in the first week. M&S will donate 10% of the purchase price, excluding VAT, of all Rainbow Sale items to NHS Charities Together, and all product is at least 50% off. To ensure social distancing, M&S will only offer sale items within departments rather than bringing all the product into one place (the usual way of merchandising a sale).
Alison Grainger, Head of Clothing & Home Retail for Marks & Spencer said, “Our aim is to help our customers shop clothing with confidence, with extensive measures in place to ensure social distancing. Where things are different we’re making sure we can offer great service and digital solutions such as our online bra fit tool.
We know that customers will be coming out on a mission: be that something for growing kids or new summer items for a family BBQ so we’ll be making it easier for them to find what they need and we’ll be making sure we have what they need in stock – from bringing in new summer products, to increasing our kidswear offer, to making sure we’ve got a great range of gifts for Father’s Day.”
