Marks & Spencer has moved into selling food online with the launch a Click and Collect service for a range of 100 “foodhall favourites”.

Marks and Spencer

The service was launched last Friday and allows customers to order the products for collection in store in between three and five days. The offer comprises ready meals, fish and meat.

The website promises that customers can “choose from our ever-growing selection of delicious foods, which may not ordinarily be available in your local store”.

Until now, the only food offered by M&S online has been orders of party food, also for collection in store. M&S’s Christmas food ordering service will also be available online for the first time this year.

However, a spokeswoman said the new ranges were not a precursor to a full food offer online, and that M&S was simply “extending the range of services for our customers.”

M&S has been making a raft of appointments as new multichannel e-commerce director Laura Wade-Gery seeks to beef up its online credentials.