Marks & Spencer goes live with digital sportswear platform

Marks & Spencer announced it had acquired a stake in the platform last March as part of its strategic focus on activewear and considers it to be “a complementary ecommerce platform well positioned in the growing activewear market”.

The sportswear platform was originally founded in 2015 and will continue to be independently run by its chief executive Nick Paulson-Ellis.

The platform allows shoppers to filter by sports brand, activity or product type, as well as providing access to wellness advice and other content.

An additional 200 new branded womenswear products are anticipated to be sold on the platform, including Asics, Veja and Girlfriend Collective.

Marks & Spencer’s co-chief executive Katie Bickerstaffe said: “This year, we’re backing our growth categories with confidence and going into battle on sportswear.

“Building on the strong foundation of Goodmove, we’re combining our brand loyalty with the expertise of The Sports Edit to offer our customers an online sports retail platform which is a one-stop shop for health and wellness.”

“The launch of The Sports Edit as an integrated hub on M&S.com demonstrates the strength of our leading omnichannel platform; which continues to make M&S an increasingly attractive brand partner.”

The Sports Edit CEO and founder Nick Paulson-Ellis added: ”At The Sports Edit, we have a proven capability in brand curation and emerging brand identification - we’re experts in curating product and content, relevant to our customers lifestyles.

”We have worked closely with the team at M&S, to understand their customer lifestyles in order to hand-pick the very best of The Sports Edit for M&S.com.

”The launch builds on M&S’s foundation in sportswear to take it to the next level, filling gaps in areas that require specialist product, such as trainers to offer a platform equipped for the future.”

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