M&S-Ocado delivery deal could take in fashion too

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Mar 4, 2019

The news last week that M&S and has signed a £750 million deal with Ocado that will see the latter becoming its grocery delivery partner said little about its fashion ops apart from talking about “cross-marketing” opportunities.

However, it has emerged that the company also expects clothing orders could be delivered alongside consumers’ weekly grocery shop and this could be crucial for M&S’s struggling clothing & home division.

The Telegraph reported M&S CEO Steve Rowe saying that there’s a particular opportunity in the intimates category, an area in which the retailer is already UK market leader.

Ocado’s warehouses are not currently geared to clothing storage and deliveries but the company does already handle Pretty Polly banded hosiery and underwear with Rowe saying that there’s the "potential to do something quite quickly” in this area.

M&S was relatively late to the online party and saw plenty of hiccups in the early days of its website, but now has an established web business for its fashion and homewares offer.

However, linking fashion sales much more closely to the more successful foods division could be a game-changer. 

The two companies already have plans to build eight new distribution centres in the UK and these could be specifically designed to include fashion product beyond intimates.