Initially, customers reported problems with using contactless card payments and the Click and Collect service. Then on Friday last week, the retailer paused orders through its website and app
Some Marks and Spencer (M&S) stores have been left with empty shelves as it continues to battle against a cyber attack. The issue has been impacting the upmarket retailer since the Easter weekend.
Initially, customers reported problems with using contactless card payments and the Click and Collect service, and then on Friday last week, the retailer paused orders through its website and app. In a new update today, M&S confirmed that some of its stores faced “limited availability” on products.
In one shop, signs were displayed on hot food counters saying they were “temporarily closed.” It said: “Due to technical issues, we aren’t able to offer these products at the moment. We’re working hard to resolve the problem and will have these items back in stock as quickly as possible.”
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M&S has not confirmed how widespread the issue is, only noting that there were “pockets of limited availability in some stores”. A M&S spokesperson said: “As part of our proactive management of the incident, we took a decision to take some of our systems temporarily offline. As a result, we currently have pockets of limited availability in some stores. We are working hard to get availability back to normal across the estate. “
Shelf stock is expected to return to normal within a few days. According to a report by The Grocer Magazine, M&S staff are now also actively having to check the chillers in its stores over fears defrost alarms have been compromised. The retailer’s decision to take systems offline has also disrupted M&S’s donations of surplus food from stores to charities.
Alongside this, M&S is also experiencing issues with a “small proportion” of products it supplies to Ocado, which delivers M&S online orders and is part-owned by the retailer. Again, M&S did not confirm the number of items affected but said it had worked with Ocado and its suppliers “to minimise any disruption to the small proportion of the range delivered through our network to Ocado.”
The cyber hack has wiped more than £500million off M&S’s stock market value over the last week, and the retailer is reportedly losing around £ 3.8million a day in lost sales for its online clothing and homeware ranges. According to its latest financial results, one third of M&S’s clothing and household goods sales in the UK are through its online platforms and were worth around £1.2billion.
On Monday, M&S told 200 agency staff at its main distribution centre for its clothing and homewares at Castle Donington in Leicestershire to stay at home as orders through its website remained on hold for the fourth day in a row.
M&S has not disclosed the nature of the cyber attack. However, the Times reported that a hacking group operating under the name “Scattered Spider” has been linked. However, this has not been officially confirmed.
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