Yahoo Movies Marks & Spencer Launches Live, Interactive Shopping on M&S.com
LONDON — Live, from London, it’s Marks & Spencer.
One of the U.K.’s largest clothing, food and home retailers is tapping into the latest tech trend, allowing M&S.com customers to join a live broadcast, pose questions to in-store experts and shop while they watch.
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The retailer launched the M&S Live Shopping series on Friday, with each weekly episode shoppable and interactive.
M&S has been working with the livestreaming software company LiSA on the service, which allows the retailer’s 13.5 million online customers to join the broadcast. The episodes are streamed live, stored on the site and can be replayed at any time.
M&S quoted McKinsey research saying the live shopping trend is expected to account for 10 to 20 percent of global e-commerce by 2026. It added that the business is worth $170 billion in China, and is projected to be worth $25 billion in the U.S. by 2023.
The series has started with an episode focusing on the retailer’s in-house activewear line Goodmove. The 22-minute launch episode is hosted by the yoga teacher and integrative health coach Rosie Underwood and M&S’ head of lingerie design Soozie Jenkinson.
Next week the focus will switch from wellness and apparel to Valentine’s Day preparations. M&S said its “flower technologist” Kathryn Camps will talk through ideas “of how to share the love this Valentine’s Day with the perfect gift ideas.”
The store said the Live Shopping series is the latest example of how it is investing to provide customers with “a seamless experience however, wherever and whenever they choose to shop, and provide exciting style inspiration, too.”
M&S said it also sees live shopping as a new channel for communication with customers, “giving M&S the opportunity to drive brand awareness and style perceptions and gather valuable customer feedback. More widely, M&S is continuing with its push to further develop the capabilities of M&S.com, with recent initiatives including the introduction of user-generated content and a ‘shop the look’ button.”
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Stephen Langford, director of M&S.com, described live shopping as a global trend born from social media. “We all know how much more we’re scrolling and engaging with video content — at home, or on the go. Live shopping puts our experts front and center, and gives them the ideal platform to share the M&S point of difference.”
The retailer has launched the initiative just as clothing sales have begun to turn around. As reported, Marks & Spencer’s efforts to tighten operations, curtail discounting and sell a host of third-party clothing brands paid off in the fiscal third quarter, with overall group revenue rising 18.5 percent year-over-year to 3.27 billion pounds.
In the three-month period, the retailer’s once-embattled clothing and home division benefited from fewer promotions, and a greater online offer. Revenue in the 13 weeks to Jan. 1, encompassing the holiday trading period, was 37.7 percent higher than the corresponding period last year, and 3.2 percent above 2019 levels.
Online clothing and home sales grew 50.8 percent, supported by a “substantial expansion” of in-store fulfillment.
Marks & Spencer has also been making an effort to expand its offer to third-party brands on its ever-expanding fashion and beauty platform online. It sells brands including Jigsaw, Ghost, Nobody’s Child and Seasalt Cornwall.
It also sells products by Jaeger, which it purchased out of administration a year ago. As reported, the store is said to be a potential buyer for Gieves & Hawkes, the Savile Row tailor owned by the Trinity Group of brands, which slid into administration earlier this month.
After the third-quarter results were released earlier this month Julie Palmer, partner at the financial and business consultancy Begbies Traynor, noted that the clothing and home division was the “big winner” in the quarter, a sign that M&S is getting that segment of the business — which has long been plagued by supply-chain issues, overstocking, promotions and competition from fast-fashion retailers — under control.
She added: “What is clear is that the long-awaited turnaround of one of the country’s most famous names seems to be finally gaining traction.”
Ed Hill, senior vice president, EMEA at Bazaarvoice, a software provider that helps brands and retailers promote user-generated content on their e-commerce sites, said that with the launch of Live Shopping, M&S is setting a precedent for other major retailers.
“The strategy will not only enable Marks & Spencer to be more relevant to younger shoppers, it will also put them in a greater position to drive traffic to both their website and social media pages, as well as inspire a new cohort of consumers to start shopping. It’s only a matter of time before we see other retailers following suit.”
Hill noted that “younger audiences, especially Gen Z, have huge spending potential, and due to the flood of product options available to them, they are also a lot more fickle when it comes to brand loyalty. Retailers like M&S that might have once targeted more mature customers are now revising their strategies to be more relevant to younger consumer groups.”
He added that the “interactive nature of live shopping helps brands and retailers bring consumers together with other consumers, in an experience which goes beyond ‘just shopping.””
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