Marks & Spencer Tests Food Delivery

New service will allow online shoppers to have their meals delivered within an hour.

September 25, 2017

LONDON – The Guardian reports that Marks & Spencer (M&S) is testing its new online food delivery service in London and Woodley.

The news source says that the service is offering home delivery within one- and two-hour time slots within a three-mile radius. A limited range of meals are available for delivery, including Thai green curry and pizzas. If shoppers want to add groceries to their basket, the delivery time is two hours. The service is available only to members of M&S’s Sparks loyalty program.

“We have started two small food online trials with selected Sparks members as we explore what works for our customers,” an M&S spokesman told the news source.

John Mercer, a retail analyst at Fung Global Retail and Technology, told The Guardian the M&S has chosen a model for its home delivery that’s like UberEats. “I think it is sensible that M&S has held off until now because the major grocery retailers have found the economics of home delivery to be very costly,” he said.

Steve Rowe, chief executive at M&S, previously told the news source that online food delivery was not something the company could rush into. Now, he says that M&S could no longer ignore the fastest growing section of the U.K.’s grocery market, especially as new service like AmazonFresh are revolutionizing how Britons buy food.

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