When Mike Yorwerth joined Marks & Spencer at the start of last year the retailer had made a definitive switch towards a digital-first model after the Covid pandemic sparked a shopping shift online.
Although Marks & Spencer had made dramatic changes to its operations since the first lockdown was imposed, the retailer’s digital transformation was — and remains — incomplete.
For Yorwerth, it was exciting to take up a role at the heart of the transformation of a business where he had originally started his career — as a graduate software engineer — in 1990 before leaving to take up posts elsewhere including Tesco, where he spent almost 18 years, and rose to become chief architect and technology director.
As M&S’ chief technology officer, he works closely with chief digital and data officer Jeremy Pee, and is involved in aspects of the business ranging from new in-store technology to the Sparks loyalty scheme — a key priority for the retailer.
At a time of fundamental change at M&S, in retail more widely and among consumers as digital technology becomes ever more part of life, his role is central to future success.
Covid, says Yorwerth, heralded “the death of multichannel and the growth of omnichannel”, and that brings seismic changes.
He explains: “In many ways, customers will now experience M&S through the tech products that we create, not just through the products that they buy. That’s a fundamental shift in how we think about technology.
“I think before retailers could sort of get away with thinking about single-channel relationships with customers. Now we’re in this world where, as a customer, I’m sometimes online on my iPad or my PC, sometimes I’m using an app, I’m doing a click and collect, I’m using my tech in store and so no longer can you separate the customer from the tech they’re using.
“Covid heralded the death of multichannel and the growth of omnichannel”
“It all needs to feel like you [the retailer] are talking to me as one person, not as an online person or a food person or a stores person. It’s that end-to-end personal journey that I think is so critical.”
As the customer has changed, so has retail. Yorwerth says: “Historically tech departments — they were probably called IT departments — were considered a cost to the business as opposed to a value creator or an enabler.
“We create value for the business, and the way we do that is about continually improving the tech product in exactly the same sort of way we think about the products we sell.”
The changing nature of consumer behaviour, and M&S’ ever-more enthusiastic embrace of the opportunities that brings, is reflected in a 50% rise in users of the retailer’s app over the last year, growth to 15 million users of the Sparks loyalty scheme since its relaunch in 2020, and the roll-out of Scan & Shop in stores.
On Sparks, Yorwerth says: “From my point of view it’s about growth – growing our capability and making the offers and information we share with customers more and more personalised, making sure something great happens every time you shop and those offers we give you are unique and very relevant so you come back again and again.”
As M&S’ customer-facing technology has changed, so has the operational side of the business. The retailer has launched tech initiatives such as a data academy and apprenticeships, designed to foster internal technological expertise, as well as bringing in more specialist staff.
Yorwerth says: “We’re growing our software engineering team by about 50% over the year – that’s still going to be quite a small part of our overall tech capability, which is a combination of M&S teams and third parties.”
The tech changes are at the forefront in store too. Yorweth says: “I get excited by some of the stuff that goes on in the background – in the food business, for instance, how do we continually improve our forecasting, ordering and allocation to improve availability, freshness and reduce waste?”
A key objective in store is to be “customer experience-led but efficient”. He gives the example of technology used by colleagues called Pay With Me, enabling shoppers to pay wherever they are in the store, rather than at checkout.
“In the food business, how do we improve availability, freshness and reduce waste?”
“It’s a great experience for a customer but it’s also more efficient for us, because I have a colleague that doesn’t have to be standing on a till all the time,” he says.
More such initiatives will be coming. Digital click and collect — enabling customers to make collections or returns using the self-serve screens without needing to wait to be served — is being rolled out to around 100 stores.
“A load of work” is taking place on simplifying payment experiences, including in clothing and home. Yerworth says: “We’ve got a few stores where we have a self-checkout experience for clothing and home. We’ll be extending that quite considerably this year because customers really love it.”
Many ideas are tried out by the ‘10x team’, whose brief is to “move the dial tenfold” by, for instance, making things faster and, or better. Some of their ideas are piloted in five branches, known as ‘10x stores’ — Kew, Harrogate, Epsom, Cribbs Causeway and Westfield White City in London — which are the retailer’s “hothouses for innovation”.
Video-enabled selling or size and availability information by scanning a barcode are some of the projects born through 10x. Others in progress, or to come, include foodhall navigation using customers’ shopping lists, RFID and robotics.
“And an area I don’t think anyone has really cracked — the fitting-room experience,” says Yorwerth. “I’ll be really excited to see what the outcome of that is.”
Last year there were 29 experiments in 10x stores, and 12 were rolled out. 10x, says Yorweth, epitomises his approach — “act today to power the M&S of tomorrow”.
In tomorrow’s M&S, effective and relevant digital technology is likely only to grow in importance.
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