Marks & Spencer showcases food range on Ocado ahead of online launch

M&S has also expanded its food offer with 750 new products to ensure the widest choice is available and is emphasising price-competitiveness with the introduction of the ‘Remarksable Value’ banner.

M&S’s joint venture with Ocado goes live on September 1, when Ocado will stop selling Waitrose lines. Increased shopper demand for online groceries has stretched capacity, however, and new customers from M&S may not immediately be able to secure delivery slots.

M&S Food managing director Stuart Machin has written to customers today, flagging the opportunity to shop online from M&S’ 6,000-strong product range.

Marks & Spencer has conducted a price-matching exercise against Waitrose’s 4,000 products and pinpointed “opportunities to create new loved products as well as finding any potential gaps”. M&S has, for instance, “significantly broadened family pack sizes to complement its existing range”.

Machin said: “One year ago today, we began the joint venture with Ocado so that customers can access the full range of delicious, great quality M&S Food products online. The team has worked really hard to make this happen and from today, customers can view the existing range of M&S products on the Ocado website as well as hundreds of new ones. Our customers can be confident that they will enjoy even better choice and even better value, whether they are shopping in-store or online.”

Despite possible capacity constraints in the short term, M&S maintained: “As demand eases, more slots should start to become available, so more customers can start to enjoy the combination of M&S’ great quality and value food and Ocado’s market-leading service.”