With brief, occasional, italicized and sometimes gratuitous commentary…
• Reuters reports that "Britain's Marks & Spencer (M&S) will make the first deliveries through its new online food shopping joint venture on Tuesday, a cornerstone of its latest attempt to turn the company around and offset problems at its pandemic-hit clothing business."
The M&S e-commerce initiative is fueled by the company's partnership with Ocado, which required a $2 billion investment. However, the story notes, "Online grocery shopping has doubled its share of the UK market to 14% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and M&S's joint venture partner Ocado reckons it could reach 30% over the next few years."
The piece notes that M&S needs some sort of boost - its sales and market share numbers have been going in the wrong direction, and won't be helped as Amazon ramps up its online grocery business in the UK. That said, it must be pointed out that M&S is doing something that most retailers were doing years ago, and so it is late to the party.
