Marks & Spencer has confirmed the expansion of its food range with the full offer being made available for customers to browse on the Ocado website before their new joint venture goes live on 1 September.
Over 750 new products are being added to the M&S Food range with more than 70% starting to land in stores across the UK and more arriving throughout August and September.
Stuart Machin, the Managing Director of M&S Food, has today written to customers to tell them that from 1 September, its full range of over 6,000 products will be available for the first time for home delivery on Ocado.
M&S stated that through a product matching exercise against the 4,000 Waitrose products currently offered by Ocado, its team of buyers and product developers had identified opportunities to create new products as well as finding any potential gaps. As a result, the retailer’s new products focus on bigger family pack sizes, a larger range of groceries and household cleaning products, and more organic lines.
Machin said: “One year ago today, we began the joint venture with Ocado so that customers can access the full range of delicious, great quality M&S Food products online. The team has worked really hard to make this happen and from today, customers can view the existing range of M&S products on the Ocado website as well as hundreds of new ones.
“Our customers can be confident that they will enjoy even better choice and even better value, whether they are shopping in-store or online.”
Despite the fanfare about its new venture with Ocado, M&S warned that the current extra demand for online food shopping may mean customers won’t be able to secure a delivery slot straight away. “As demand eases, more slots should start to become available, so more customers can start to enjoy the brilliant combination of M&S’ great quality and value food and Ocado’s market-leading service,” the retailer said.
NAM Implications:
- New products including bigger family pack sizes, a larger range of groceries and household cleaning products, and more organic lines, should add to the appeal of the new Ocado-M&S offering.
- However, lockdown-induced online popularity means there is no extra capacity for Waitrose/M&S customers that want to switch.
- Increasing the risk of whipping up an appetite that cannot be satisfied…
- There also remains the issue of Ocado own label positioning following the change to M&S…
