M&S increases emphasis on innovation
on innovation to sustain its recovery. Its successful Simply Food
format is to be trialled in motorway service stations, while the
self-checkout system will be rolled out in eight more stores along
with a virtual shop assistant.
Marks & Spencer, the UK food and clothing retailer, is to embark upon two new ventures which reflect the company's increasing confidence after several years of disappointing results.
The success of the company's Simply Food joint venture with the Compass group - which has seen the a number of food-only Marks & Spencer outlets spring up on railway stations across the UK - has now prompted the company to trial the format on Britain's motorway network.
According to the Financial Times newspaper, M&S will open a trial Simply Food outlet on one of Britain's busiest motorways, the M1, later this summer, again in association with Compass, which owns the Moto chain of motorway service stations.
According to the report, the Simply Food stores will focus on providing meal solutions to motorway travellers, with a particular emphasis on ready meals and fresh fruit and vegetables. There will also be the traditional service station fare of sandwiches and salads.
The Simply Food business has been a significant success for M&S, which is planning to roll out 50 more railway station outlets over the next three years. There are currently 30 or so high street versions of the Simply Food unit, and this number could rise to as many as 150 by 2006.
But M&S is not simply innovating with new store formats, it is also testing new ways of improving the shopping experience within the stores themselves.
Last year we reported that M&S was to trial a new system allowing customers to check out their own shopping without the intervention of a member of staff, and after the success of the three initial trials, a further eight stores will be fitted with the technology this year.
But the company has now gone one step further and introduced a virtual sales assistant to help shoppers use the system.
Marks & Spencer claims that it is the first retailer in Europe to trial the use of a virtual sales assistant, which will run alongside the self-checkout till. The technology allows the creation of a fully animated 3D image called an avatar, which is based on a real life person - in this case, Lisa Brand, food manager at Marks & Spencer's Metro Centre store in Gateshead, where the system will be installed.
The virtual Lisa is activated by customers walking past the self-checkout area and will encourage more customers to use the already successful self-checkout tills, or SCOTs. She will be able to guide customers through the self-checkout process and answer various questions through the use of a fully interactive touch screen.
Ralph Marshall, head of store systems at Marks & Spencer, commented: "We are always looking at ways to improve customer service through the use of technology and the SCOT tills have proved particularly effective in doing this.
"The trial of the avatar checkout assistant will not only enable us to take the self-checkout concept to the next level, in conjunction with the SCOT rollout to eight more stores, but will further enable staff to focus on more value-added services."
