Marks and Spencer Website Outage Gifts Market Share to Fashion Rivals

A prolonged cyber-attack forcing Marks & Spencer to suspend its online operations for nearly seven weeks has resulted in significant market share gains for its competitors. The retail giant’s clothing sales plummeted by 20% in the four weeks leading to 25 May, compared to the previous year’s figures.

The website shutdown, which typically accounts for one-third of M&S’s clothing and homeware sales, created a substantial void in the market. This disruption came at a particularly inopportune moment, as British consumers were actively purchasing summer essentials during a warm weather spell.

Data from Kantar reveals that M&S’s rivals capitalised on this digital vacuum. Next experienced an increase in brand sales growth from 1.6% to 4.8%, while Zara witnessed a remarkable surge from 16.1% to 27.8%. H&M also benefited substantially, with sales growth accelerating from 8.9% to 18.1%.

Despite the online disruption, M&S maintained its position as the UK’s largest clothing retailer by value, primarily due to strong in-store performance. The company reported robust sales across all fashion categories, with womenswear showing particular resilience.

Interestingly, Primark’s performance remained relatively flat during this period, with sales growth actually declining from 3.1% to 2.7%. According to James Grzinic, a retail analyst at Jefferies, this underwhelming performance can be attributed to Primark’s lack of online presence, which prevented it from capitalising on M&S’s digital misfortune.

The cyber-attack, which began on 25 April and lasted until 10 June, occurred during a period of otherwise positive industry-wide growth, with overall sales increasing by 4% during the four weeks to 25 May, up from 1% in the previous month.