Could it be...Improving M&S Non Food/Clothing?

1 February 2017

Wow, some improvements in the cyclical seasonal offer from M&S it appears. Whilst I'm about as far away a fashionista as you could find - terms like 'boyfriend' wear confuse me and I have long since given up trying to grasp just what makes fashion, fashion... I do have a moderately decent eye for things in stores, and this is where it really matters.

Online remains a huge opportunity but let's be honest, it's not the strength of M&S and their customer base is towards the older end of the demographic anyway. Their core they may use the internet, but predominantly won't be the adopters of tomorrow.

Even then, the 'youth' shop on the high streets and in the stores up and down the country.... I've seen them! It's never can just be online.

So with the reality of the marketplace heavily in favour of stores.... M&S have to sharpen up their work in store and with that, the ranges have to improve at the same time. The two go hand in hand.

In terms of online; I noted the other day in M&S that every store seems to have those round displays where customers look online at the large iPhone esque display to order other sizes not available in store.

Quite the leap, taking customers to a virtual world to order a size that they don't have in store. It does work well in places like Schuh as the colleague checks on the system and offers to sort it all for you, ordering the size missing to store / home as applicable. Very pain free.

Whereas in M&S, the customer has to do all the work for themselves, as if the fact their size is missing wasn't enough of a disappointment, they then go and order the size themselves and send it to their own home / store for pick up.

I even saw a customer in M&S using the unit the other day, with her boots in hand - ordering another size presumably.

But when you look around the store, particularly in areas like Kids where sizes are often missing due to the popularity of certain lines - there is nothing around the online link in store. Nothing to tell customers that you can order here for next day, 'size missing?' etc etc.

Look at the signage here in the Childrens section, all very noble in terms of the price points and category division, but where's the attempt to retain the sale if the sizes are out of stock?

Zero. May as well just send them to a competitor.

Although the fact they've grouped the kids category by age banding rather than 'who knows' what before is alarming... a) It's painted as a positive (?) but b) what on earth was it like before?

The simple changes are the hardest ones to make sometimes...

No signage points to even using the online booth that's located about 100 metres from the shoe display, this is a good way to work the online mix for customers, yes there's an older demographic but there are ways to consider online growth and encouraging customers to use the service.

When there is no signage to link ordering from a floor based unit if your selected size isn't available. You're missing an open goal from 2 yards away. Why bother yourself?

That said; the M&S signage in clothing with the stronger pricing (£9) for 'our t-shirts' is sharper. Working well and not hiding the pricing as perhaps they may have done before.

Clear pricing, quality is unrivalled.

Some sharper signs in clothing doesn't necessarily point to a recovery, however the fact that they're focusing on moving the kids category around to ensure that they're located by age as other retailers may merchandise is a good thing.

It's certainly preferable fixing the nuts and bolts of retailing, rather than another collection, with another designer and more refining of sub brands in female clothing that takes them forward, back before arriving back in mid table.

Some clothing in womenswear that isn't stuck in 1971 here! Wow, quite the departure from M&S and to be fair, these are clothes that you can see younger women wearing. Some of this is quite on trend too, showing that M&S might be starting to get a grip of the reality of seasonality and at least being near some of the trends.

The notable element with this range is the similarity in some respects to something that Cath Kidston may push on with. The trainers are entirely questionable, but versus some of the other ranges they've brought out - it looks better....

The similarity to the likes of Uniqlo is noted here in these Puffa coats that are seemingly everywhere this Winter.

The merchandising isn't very Uniqlo, yet the style and colours of Coats are. For those not familiar, Uniqlo essentially range a standard assortment of clothing and offer the 'tighter' range in a number of different colours / styles.

See the Uniqlo picture just above for how it should be done.

Whilst M&S have tried here, it still looks / feel like M&S - there was an opportunity to do more with the coats here. I asked some customers in Uniqlo New York (get me!) last year about the Coats, they were being bought by virtually everyone.

They're great value and very reasonably priced the customers said, plus the huge depth of colours meant they can buy for 2/3 kids and they can have a different one each.

That said - despite the inspiration. It still feels a bit M&S like. Plus £39.50 isn't strong enough as a price point.

£2.50 towels and £3.50 dinnerware is strong though!

The main area of woe for M&S is non-food; a huge issue for them given the space of some of their larger shops....

A pedestrian range in many respects, value is out of the window and they struggle in the market versus numerous competitors. Not just the obvious retailers like Dunelm and Next, but supermarkets are increasingly sharper - Asda do underplay their range somewhat but the Next-esque work is impressive.

Tesco have work to do with their range but their scale is clearly a threat to M&S. Sainsbury's emerge as a major threat in the 'new world' given their acquisition of Argos and what they could put through there, alongside Habitat who must have a real crossover with a core M&S customer as their target market.

Waitrose who are linking well with John Lewis these days are another threat, particularly with their excellent click / collect service.

Yet there are signs of an improvement here, a consistent piece of work across both clothing and non food in terms of their signage and price points.

It comes together well as a wider offer and feels like both food and non food are part of the same chain, with an identity and a nod to quality (as ever) but also value, differently priced towels starting at £2.50 for example.

The key element for M&S is to continue to be relevant and also work on value too. There is some encouraging work in clothing, looking at the likes of Uniqlo is no bad thing. It shows they're getting to where they need to be, not just bringing in more designers and trying the same thing but in a different way....

Style and quality but value is the key barometer. You can't always have everything, but M&S all too often don't have 2 of those 3 components.

Whilst like for likes may dip in the next quarter, that shouldn't be taken that it's all gone wrong, far from it. At least there are signs of progress here, and they have to be left alone to get things right for the long term.

They can't be judged quarter by quarter, particularly with fashion / non food being a huge part of the business. Both of these sectors are heavily impacted by weather and 'collection'.

Get it wrong and you're lumbered with clearance and/or not enough of the right stock, thus clearance of the stock you do have..... The only winner is the outlet store.

A difficult ask to resolve non food and clothing; but the seeds are being sown it appears........ Let's hope they keep going.

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From the Grocery Insight newsletter archive, first sent to subscribers on 1 February 2017. Steve now writes at read.groceryinsight.com. See also the blog archive and briefings.