Marks & Spencer grows omnichannel platform

British department store Marks & Spencer has announced plans to expand its omnichannel platform, including the introduction of six new clothing and footwear brands to be introduced on its website.

Earlier in the year, the company launched Brands at M&S, a curated platform of apparel and homeware brands targeted towards the Marks & Spencer customer group. Since its launch, the company has added a number of popular brands, such as Clarks, beauty brand Boucleme and Sloggi lingerie.

The expansion of the platform involves bringing in new guest brands to further boost its reach, including Albaray, Celtic & Co, Craghoppers, FatFace, Frugi and Jones Bootmaker. The brands will become available in the coming weeks. The goal of its omnichannel growth is to continue the nurturing of personalised customer relationships while also reshaping Marks & Spencer’s clothing and home business.

“With customers increasingly looking to shop on platforms, we have an exciting opportunity to leverage our infrastructure and digital-first Sparks loyalty scheme to grow Brands at M&S,” said Neil Harrison, director of the scheme, in a statement. “We’re offering our time-pressured customers more choice with a curated group of value for money, contemporary, stylish brands with sustainability credentials - improving our online offer and making us more relevant, more often.”

The decision to expand is backed by a customer survey carried out by the company, stating 73 percent of Marks & Spencer customers said they have purchased clothing and footwear brands from a retailer acting as a platform. To ensure a fast reaction time to this growing trend, Marks & Spencer has continued to develop its Brands at M&S team, who will be dedicated to working on this specific area of business.

While a portion of the platform is predominantly online, the company is continuing to expand its in-store trials of Brands at M&S. The concept will be carried out on a wider scale to include stores in Glasgow, London, Cheshire Oaks, Manchester and the Metro Centre in Gateshead.