Zara, H&M and Next scoop up online sales during M&S cyber outage

M&S’ key fashion rivals including Next, Zara and H&M gained market share last month, as the retailer’s online outage dragged clothing sales down by a fifth.

The high street giant was forced to suspend online orders on 25 April following a major cyber-attack, only resuming trade on 10 June — missing out on key weeks of warm weather shopping.

Kantar data shows M&S’s clothing and home sales dropped 20% year-on-year in the four weeks to 25 May. That compares to an 11.5% surge across the previous three months, before the incident.

The disruption left the door open for rivals. Jefferies analyst James Grzinic told the Guardian “Next brand sales growth rose to 4.8% from 1.6%, benefiting from the digital disruption seen by major peer [M&S].”

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While Zara and H&M’s smaller UK market share makes precise figures harder to verify, both saw strong upticks, with Zara’s sales growth jumping from 16.1% to 27.8%, and H&M from 8.9% to 18.1%.

By contrast, Primark – which is only available online via click and collect – saw little benefit, with growth slowing slightly to 2.7% in the same period.

M&S insists it held up well in-store, stating: “Our stores performed strongly across all fashion categories and particularly womenswear. This underlines the strength of our product offer… and loyalty of our customers. A big thank you to them for shopping with us.”

The retailer maintains its position as the UK’s biggest clothing retailer by value.

Jefferies’ analysis compared performance across the 12 weeks to 25 May versus the 12 weeks ending mid-April. M&S’s growth fell to just 1% in the later period.

The group continues to restore its online offer, with a growing number of third-party brands and product categories gradually returning to its website.

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