marks & spencer food hall

Marks & Spencer’s is upping its online grocery trial 

M&S has extended its online grocery trial to two more locations just a month after launching in Camden and Woodley.

Sparks customers in Camberley and Reading are now able to either order their M&S groceries for speedy home delivery or click & collect.

The original sites of Camden and Woodley are now offering both click & collect and home delivery options, having started out with just one service each.

The trial online service launched at the end of September to selected Sparks members, who receive 20% off their first purchase and free delivery.

Customers can choose between an extra speedy one-hour service on ‘dinner for tonight’ options - billed as “the best of M&S fresh and convenient meals” - and a two-hour service on a full range of M&S produce.

The news was broken by retail analyst John Mercer, who reviewed the service for The Grocer earlier this month.

Mercer forecast the model would work well for M&S. “This is a good way to square online grocery with their convenience offer,” he said. “More and more people are buying with Deliveroo and UberEats so it’s tapping that market.”

However, he said it was unclear how the economics of the home delivery side would work as M&S has not yet set a delivery charge. Similar retailer services - Sainsbury’s Chop Chop and Tesco Now - charge between £4.99 and £7.99.

Mercer suggested the click & collect offering could have “much more favourable costs” and meet demand for convenience.