Waiting time almost doubled
The flood of online orders has proven to be too much for Marks & Spencer, which launched an extensive UK marketing campaign at the end of November. Its new distribution center has faced issues, forcing the company to extend its delivery times.
Normally, M&S.com guarantees a 3 to 5 day delivery in Great Britain, but it has now altered that period to 10 days. Its “Day +1” option had also been cancelled temporarily, but has been reinstated after plenty of social media complaints. The Day+1 option is currently only valid for deliveries at home, because store-based pick ups will still take 2 to 3 days.
“Our customer is always our top priority and that is why we’ve extended some of our delivery options. The vast majority of orders are delivered on time. If we do miss a delivery date, we will do all we can to rectify it for the customer”, Marks & Spencer has stated.
Brand-new distribution centre
This is very bad timing for Marks & Spencer, which has labeled e-commerce as the focal point of its revival. That is why the group had opened a brand-new, fully automatic 85,000 sqm distribution center in Castle Donington. This deals with all of M&S.com’s orders and was supposed to be fully operational in order to deal with the busy holiday season.
“It’s the first Christmas of having all M&S.com there. With an operation of that scale, you are always going to get some onsite challenges,” an M&S spokesman said. Its launch was also hampered by issues, so much so that M&S.com’s turnover dropped 6.3 % in the first six months of the year (until 27 September).
