Fashion turnaround gives M&S confidence to open ‘curated’ clothing store
Having boosted not only quality but – crucially – style perceptions, Marks & Spencer is to open a curated standalone clothing and beauty store in “test and learn” trial.
Marks & Spencer has confirmed it is preparing to launch a new format store, in the shape of a standalone branch offering a “curated” edit of its womenswear, menswear and beauty ranges.
The store, located in London’s Battersea Power Station, will be a single unit from which M&S plans to take a “test and learn” approach. The shop will be branded simply as Marks & Spencer.
The boutique-style store is expected to employ a smaller footprint to offer styling advice and a smaller range of products, for customers who seldom buy food and fashion on the same visit. According to reports in the Sunday Times, M&S chief executive Stuart Machin says more fashion-only branches may open if the trial proves successful.
The confidence to open a fashion-only store represents a significant turnaround for the M&S brand which, only a few years ago, was relying on strong food sales to buoy a floundering fashion operation.
“We had absolutely lost our way,” M&S marketing director Anna Braithwaite told Marketing Week’s Festival of Marketing last October. “The brand, the product, the value, the quality, it’s been a really tricky journey. Style was our biggest barrier to growth; if we could not win in womenswear or style…we weren’t going to win on anything.”
M&S to steer clear of ‘tricksy’ pricing to focus on value perception
Braithwaite explained how the brand was transitioning to view everything “through the style lens”. Two years ago, M&S implemented its ‘Reshape for Growth’ strategy. Boosting style, value, and quality perceptions has been a key focus for the retailer in recent years, with the brand signing actress Sienna Miller to be the face of its womenswear as part of this mission last year.
This strategy has seen the retailer leverage the first-party data from its Sparks loyalty scheme to better understand customers. The chain also started to carry third-party fashion brands for the first time in 2020.
The retailer’s full year results, announced in May, reported strong performance from M&S in a challenging market. For the year ending 30 March, clothing and home sales increased by 5.2% to £402.8m. Just two years earlier M&S had announced a 34% fall in clothing sales.
One of the strongest areas of growth in the full year results was within M&S’s lingerie business, which delivered a “record-breaking” 38% share. Some 30% of the retailer’s lingerie customers are now under the age of 30 – double the number from last year.
The choice of location for the first curated store is suggestive for the direction of the wider strategy. Battersea Power Station reopened as a retail venue in 2022 after a long-awaited redevelopment project that also created 1,500 homes.
The centre features a high end retail mix. Retailers in the centre include Abercrombie & Fitch, Arc’Teryx, Apple, Boss, Chanel, Gant, the Kooples and Ralph Lauren. Among the choices for food is an existing Marks & Spencer Foodhall.
