Marks & Spencer co-chief executive Katie Bickerstaffe has “reset” her team to build on omnichannel momentum and create a more compelling customer ecosystem, Retail Week can reveal.
Bickerstaffe, who through the MS2 initiative brought together data, digital, technology and dot-com staff to drive online growth and profitability, has reshaped the senior team to deliver better customer insight and a better customer experience.
M&S Bank and services director Kirsty Ward becomes director of the new M&S Connect, “which will be focused on building a single digital identity of our customers so we know them and understand what they want from us and they shop with us more often, spend more with us when they do and stay in our ‘ecosystem”, Bickerstaffe told M&S staff today, in a memo seen by Retail Week.
The emphasis will be on maintaining and building the membership of the Sparks loyalty scheme and driving shopping through the retailer’s app. The Sparks team, led by Danielle Papagapiou, will join the bank and services team to create a new M&S Connect team.
M&S.com director Stephen Langford becomes director of online and omnichannel to “unite our website and the app in the UK and Ireland to better link them together and improve how our digital channels interact with our stores”.
The customer growth team, which is focused on digital, personalised marketing and headed by Alex Williams, will join the dot-com team to “create the new online and omnichannel function”.
M&S chief digital and data director Jeremy Pee becomes chief digital and technology director, “bringing together the technology, digital product and data teams as one function”. Mike Yorwerth, chief technology officer, will leave M&S at the end of this financial year.
Bickerstaffe said: “This will simplify the way we work and bring together our data scientists who manage, evaluate and analyse the data we have to improve our customer offer; digital product colleagues who plan, develop, launch and manage our digital products and services; and our technology team who plan, develop, maintain and service the software and hardware that allows our business to perform every day. This brings together the capabilities and skills we need to become a world-class omnichannel retailer with data at the heart.”
Over the last few years, M&S has built online sales to 30% of the total in clothing and home and quadrupled the number of active app users to 4 million. It has also added complementary third-party brands to its website, stimulating cross-sale of its products.
Bickerstaffe added: “What has got us here won’t get us there, we have to build on what we have done and keep making progress at pace. We are making some organisational changes to accelerate our plans.”
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