Marks & Spencer rolls out Bring Your Own Bag’ click & connect initiative in 251 stores
M&S will be reducing the amount of plastic packaging it uses by rolling out a new ‘Bring Your Own Bag’ click & connect initiative in 251 of its shops for orders that are picked and packed in-store.
The roll-out follows a successful trial at 16 M&S shops where customers were reminded at the point of checkout to bring their own bag when coming to collect an order placed online.
Over the course of seven months, the trial saw 39,347 orders being fulfilled in this way, which removed over 109 thousand units of plastic.
M&S said customers praised the approach for being ‘simple and straightforward’ and an easy way to help them reduce their own plastic consumption.
The retailer said more than 15 million orders are bought by click and collect each year, and 25% of those are picked and packed in the customer’s local M&S store. Over the next few months, all click & collect orders that are picked and packed at the customers local collection store will be provided to the customer without a plastic carrier – with the ambition to expand the initiative to all click & collect orders in the longer-term.
Stephen Langford, director of M&S.com, said: “Using our stores to fulfil click & collect orders continues to grow and we want to use this as a channel to encourage a behaviour change that helps to reduce single use plastic consumption. During trial phase, we had great feedback from customers as they saw it as a simple action that, collectively, can make a big difference.”
