Marks & Spencer is extending its ‘Fill Your Own’ food concept to household cleaning products.
The retailer is launching a trial of refillable own-label homecare and laundry products as part of its commitment to reduce plastic packaging and offer more sustainable choices.
M&S Refillable allows shoppers to choose from eight pre-filled products, including cleaning sprays, laundry detergents, fabric conditioners, and washing up liquids.
The offering will be available initially in M&S’ recently opened Stevenage store and in Bluewater, before being extended to an additional four stores over the summer (Stratford City, Hedge End, Aintree and York Vangarde Retail Park).
Shoppers will need to pay an initial £2 deposit for a reusable bottle, with a range of 500ml, 750ml and 1L sizes to choose from, which can be returned to store after use. Upon return, customers will receive a £2 voucher which can be redeemed against a second purchase in the M&S Refillable range.
All returned bottles will be cleaned and refilled before returning to store to be sold again. Cleaning spray and washing-up liquid bottles will also include a recyclable spray trigger or pump that can be recycled at home or returned to store.
The retailer noted that customers were already responding well to the trial, with the most popular product (citrus washing up liquid) almost equalling sales of its packaged equivalent. If successful, M&S plans to expand the range and introduce it to other stores.
M&S launched its packaging-free ‘Fill Your Own’ concept for food in December 2019. It is now available in fourteen stores, with shoppers having a choice of over 60 refillable grocery products at better value per gram compared to packaged alternatives, including pasta, rice, cereal, and nuts. The scheme is estimated to have removed 350,000 units of single-use packaging.
“At M&S, we want to help our customers live more sustainably by transforming how we sell our products. We know they care deeply about reducing plastic so we’re taking a test and learn approach to find innovative solutions,” said Lucinda Langton, Head of Sustainability at M&S Food.
“Our homecare trial builds on our refillable and packaging-free Fill Your Own concept, and both are important parts of our strategy to reduce plastic and packaging. Fill Your Own has already been hugely popular – showing there is high demand for refillable great value options – and if customers love M&S Refillable just as much, we’ll be rolling it out to more stores.”
NAM Implications:
- One way of ensuring the quality of refillables.
- And locking the consumer into a second purchase.
- Over to the shopper…
