How Marks & Spencer fits into a much bigger trend than anyone expected

You notice it in the most ordinary place: a Marks & Spencer food hall on a rainy Tuesday, or the M&S app open while you’re trying to sort dinner before the school run. Then, out of nowhere, you hit a message that reads: “it appears you haven’t included any text to translate. please provide the text you would like translated into united kingdom english.” It’s a clunky little reminder that retail now lives in two worlds at once - the physical shop and the digital layer on top - and both have to work.

That’s why M&S matters right now. Not because it’s suddenly trendy, but because it’s a case study in a bigger shift most people didn’t clock until it started showing up in their weekly shop: legacy brands becoming quiet tech businesses, with trousers and sandwiches as the front door.

The surprise: the “boring” brands are the ones changing fastest

For years, the story was simple. New brands were nimble and online; older ones were slow, store-led, and slightly allergic to change. Marks & Spencer didn’t look like the obvious candidate to ride a modern wave. It looked like the company your parents trusted for multipacks and reliable knickers.

But the trend isn’t “online replaces offline”. It’s “systems replace vibes”.

The winners aren’t necessarily the coolest brands - they’re the ones that can make stock, pricing, loyalty, delivery, returns, and customer service behave like one connected machine. When that works, customers just experience it as ease. When it doesn’t, you get the retail version of that translation error: friction that makes you abandon the task entirely.

The bigger trend is retail becoming an infrastructure game

Think about what you actually want when you buy something basic: the right size, in stock, quickly, without a faff. That’s not a marketing problem. That’s plumbing.

Modern retail is drifting towards the same logic as utilities:

• Reliability beats novelty. People don’t want an adventure; they want the thing to arrive.
• Convenience is the product. Not as a slogan - as an operational reality.
• Trust becomes measurable. “Do they get it right?” beats “Do I like their ad?”

Marks & Spencer fits this because it’s not trying to be a viral disruptor. It’s trying to reduce the tiny disappointments that kill repeat behaviour: the missing sizes, the weird substitutions, the return that takes too long, the voucher that won’t apply.

Why food halls and fashion are now part of the same story

M&S has always had a split personality: food on one side, clothing and home on the other. That used to be a brand quirk. Now it’s a strategic advantage - if you can stitch it together.

Food is frequent. It trains habit. You pop in for dinner, you remember the basics, you start trusting the label again. Clothing is higher value and higher risk, but it’s where loyalty pays off if the fit and quality feel predictable.

The bigger trend is that retailers are hunting for “loops”:

1. A reason to return often (food, beauty, consumables).
2. A reason to spend bigger when you do (apparel, home, gifts).
3. A reason to identify yourself every time (loyalty, account, personalised offers).

Once that loop exists, the brand stops being a shop and becomes a routine. That’s the real battleground.

The quiet power move: making the shop work like an interface

Walk into a good M&S and it doesn’t scream innovation. It doesn’t need to. The point is that the experience feels edited - fewer “why is this like this?” moments.

That’s exactly what the best digital products do: they remove cognitive load. You don’t want to think. You want to complete.

In retail, the equivalent is unglamorous:

• Clear ranges that don’t require a PhD in sizing.
• Stock that roughly matches what the shop promises.
• Promotions that apply without you negotiating with a till.
• Returns that don’t punish you for trying.

If you’re wondering why that matters, look at how people behave when it fails. They don’t complain; they drift. One bad return, one out-of-stock staple too many, and you quietly move your weekly shop somewhere else.

What “the much bigger trend” looks like in your life

It shows up as a slow re-ranking of where you buy things. Not because you suddenly fell in love with a brand, but because it became easier than the alternatives.

You’ll see it in the way households now mix and match:

• A supermarket for the big trolley.
• A premium “top-up” stop for dinner that feels like a treat.
• One or two trusted places for clothes, where returns don’t sting.

Marks & Spencer is slotting into that second and third role at once. That combination is rarer than it sounds, and it’s why people keep underestimating it. It’s not trying to be everything; it’s trying to be dependable in the moments that matter.

The risk that comes with the shift: when the tech layer gets in the way

Here’s the catch with becoming an infrastructure business: when the infrastructure breaks, everyone notices. A confusing message like “it appears you haven’t included any text to translate. please provide the text you would like translated into united kingdom english.” is small, but it’s symbolic. It’s the feeling of “I’m trying to do a simple thing and the system is arguing back.”

The bigger trend doesn’t forgive that for long, because customers now compare you to the smoothest experience they’ve had anywhere - not just to your direct competitors. Your shop is being judged against banking apps, takeaway checkouts, and next-day delivery dashboards.

So the game becomes: can you keep the experience calm as you add complexity behind the scenes?

How to spot the retailers built for what’s coming

You don’t need insider numbers to see who’s adapting. Look for the brands that behave like they’re designing a journey, not just stocking shelves.

A quick checklist:

• They reduce choices, not just add range.
• They link channels. The app, the shop, and customer service feel like one place.
• They make “small” tasks painless. Returns, substitutions, missing items, refunds.
• They earn habit. You find yourself going back without making a decision.

That’s the lane Marks & Spencer is moving into: less about reinvention, more about removing the reasons people leave.

What’s changing in retail	What it looks like	Why it matters
Stores + digital merge	One account, one basket mindset	Less friction, more repeat buying
Convenience becomes premium	Fast, reliable, predictable	People pay for ease, not hype
Trust is operational	Stock, returns, service consistency	Loyalty becomes behaviour, not sentiment

The takeaway: M&S isn’t an exception - it’s a signal

Marks & Spencer isn’t thriving because the past is back. It’s doing well because the future is oddly traditional: shoppers want reliability, and they’ll reward the brands that build it into the system.

That’s the bigger trend than anyone expected. The next decade of retail won’t be won by the loudest disruptor. It’ll be won by the companies that make everyday buying feel strangely effortless - and keep it that way even when the tech layer occasionally forgets what you were trying to do.