Marks & Spencer has shrunk its clothing collection – and that’s no bad thing
The new season fashion mantra at Marks & Spencer? Less is more, literally, as the retailer has reduced the number of styles in its autumn womenswear clothing collection by 20 per cent.
Jill Stanton, director of womenswear, kidswear and beauty at M&S, explained that the cut in was “in line with our Never The Same Again priorities” - referring to the company’s new, ominous-sounding directive, which was announced in April, just before 7,000 jobs were scrapped.
But is it a bad thing, to have less product in stores? In this case, I’d argue it’s a good move for M&S.
“This season we’ve focused on making our stores easier to shop at,” Stanton said. “We’ve got 20 per cent fewer products than we had before and we’ve removed the duplication and the slow-selling lines that we’ve had in the past.”
The idea, in short, is that they’ve bought more of what they know will sell, and reassessed their core product offering to ensure that they focus on pieces that give customers quality and value for money. “We are focusing on winning lines and hero departments, the parts of our business that we are famous for,” Stanton added. “We want the customer to have more confidence that we will have what they want and that it will be easy to find and impossible to miss.”
At last M&S is making a sound that chimes with what customers want now. The directive places emphasis on perfecting the timeless, quality wardrobe staples which M&S should be able to guarantee will sell well, rather than pandering too much to the flippant fashion trends which don’t really mean much to anyone any more.
In going back to (still stylish) basics, they can solidify the core of their clothing range and worry about being fashionable after - although bosses might be surprised to find that the two go hand in hand, as even the most trend-hungry shopper is typically looking for quality classics now.
Stanton said that backing bestsellers was an important part of the strategy - buying more of their £15 high-waisted jeggings, of which a pair is sold every minute in the UK, as well as their quality super-soft Cashmilon jumpers, of which 1.5 million are sold each year. Going into autumn, they’ve upped that offering to include 12 colour and pattern styles, in sizes 6-24, all priced at £15.
In the lingerie and loungewear departments, a particular soft Flexi Fit crop top which sold 59,000 units between April and June, after launching in March, has been invested in again for autumn, as have sports bra styles and the successful GOODMOVE activewear line.
All of these changes were planned before the pandemic, but sit well with the current retail climate. Stanton described a reduction in their formalwear buy, and an adaptation to the tailoring range (M&S is the market leader in this area) to include more softer and stretch-based fabrics as the only “critical” changes made to the range, which would have been planned long before the coronavirus crisis struck.
“We are focusing on making fewer, better things,” said Stanton. “It’s just the beginning of how we intend to emerge as a renewed and stronger clothing business.”
The approach of buying less and buying better is something that most consumers are interested in and streamlining clutter from stores, and “focusing on everyday style” should be the method of future-proofing used across the high street.
Will it pay off for M&S? The proof will be visible on the shop floor in the coming weeks - and in the numbers later in the season.
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