Marks & Spencer’s Stuart Machin shows Retail Week the business’ newly expanded Solihull store, which incorporates enhanced digital features including a modernised eaterie
Marks & Spencer joint chief operating officer Stuart Machin told Retail Week the shop in Solihull, West Midlands, represented the retailer’s “direction of travel” as it pushes on with a transformation programme.
As part of its overhaul, M&S is relocating stores towards prime retail parks, as at Solihull where the new branch at Sears Retail Park replaces one that formerly traded in the town centre. M&S is also adopting a digital-first approach, making more use of technology to improve customers’ experience and create efficiencies.
That emphasis is evident at the front of the store, where digital windows have been installed – as in the Marble Arch and Manchester branches – and continues immediately inside, where a tech-enabled click-and-collect and returns point is prominently positioned rather than, as would typically be the case, deeper inside the store.
Customers can collect items within 60 seconds, only needing to enter their name, or drop returns through a hatch after scanning a barcode.
Digital self-service tills are close by, enabling shoppers to pay by themselves. The tills can be reversed for staff members to use. Customers can also pay at fitting rooms, making purchases simpler and avoiding the need to go and queue.
The digital switch is evident at the cafe, where shoppers can order from screens using the Sparks app and pick up a digital marker to take to a table, where their meal will be brought to them, or order using QR codes on the tables.
The change of approach means customers no longer have to queue to purchase and collect food or balance trays as they carry their meals to a table. Phone charging points and plugs for laptops have also been installed as part of the effort to modernise the retailer’s hospitality proposition.
The design of the cafe is more contemporary, as is the menu that features items such as tortillas and flatbreads rather than the more traditional M&S fare – though favourites such as bacon butties still feature and the number of rashers has been doubled.
M&S has drafted in specialist hospitality staff to run the venture including freshly cooking orders and preparing single-origin coffees.
The cafe is a “testbed” the retailer will learn from before rolling out and has taken on lessons from hospitality companies.
The food hall incorporates elements from previous ‘renewal’ stores, such as an extended range to enable big shops and more emphasis on frozen lines, including ‘pick your own’ frozen fruit. Customers can also pay remotely using their mobiles and the Sparks app.
A similar renewal programme is also underway at the retailer’s clothing and home division, overseen by Richard Price, and Machin’s joint-COO Katie Bickerstaffe.
The Solihull store was originally an M&S Food Hall, which was extended to add clothing and home after taking over neighbouring premises.
It is the first to sell Ghost clothing, a collaboration range between M&S and the fashion brand, which goes on sale generally later this week.
Machin said Solihull should not be seen as “the finished article” but as “the direction of travel”
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