The deal between Marks & Spencer and online grocery service Ocado will go beyond delivering food at home: apparel and accessories may soon be delivered along with the weekly groceries as well.
Groceries and underware
Last week, Marks & Spencer has partnered up with online grocery delivery service Ocado to start a joint venture that should deliver M&S’s food products at home. The idea is to go beyond food, though: CEO Steve Rowe has stated in the Telegraph that he also sees potential for clothing and wants to start working on that quite quickly. He is specifically considering delivering underware and tights, where Marks & Spencer is the market leader.
Currently, Ocado is mostly focused on the delivery of fresh food and as such, the company does not yet have any warehouses for other types of product. As part of the collaboration, M&S and the e-commerce specialist now have plans to build eight new warehouses in the United Kingdom. The storage and processing of clothing items is already being taken into account.
In the past few years, Marks & Spencer has been struggling with decreasing turnover and profitability, because the company waited too long to renew its product range and adopt new sales strategies (including e-commerce). The chain does have a webshop now, but it does not yet sell any food items. The company is hoping to turn the tide now by launching a full-on grocery delivery service that includes both food and non-food.
