On a like-for-like basis, sales for clothing and home at M&S in Q3 were up by 8.6% to £1.179 million. The category achieved over 10% market share in the period, its highest level since 2015. Store sales for clothing and home increased 12.8%, while online sales increased 0.7%.
Stuart Machin, chief executive, commented: “M&S sustained trading momentum through the peak quarter and both food and clothing and home have delivered strong growth.
“Clothing and home delivered another outstanding performance, maintaining its market leadership position with its highest market share in seven years.
“This outperformance was driven by M&S doing what it does best; exceptional product at value you can trust. Thanks to our unrivalled quality, innovation and growing style credentials, more customers shopped with M&S over the Christmas period than in recent years.
“We saw the benefits of the acceleration in the steps we’re taking to reshape M&S as an omnichannel retailer supported by an increasingly promising store rotation programme. Our new full line and renewal stores outperformed expectations, while click and collect orders increased 20%, and the competitive advantage of M&S’s omnichannel platform was demonstrated by delivering c.50% growth in third party brand sales. This was supported by substantial growth in monthly active app users to c.5m.”
