M&S hires ad executive as it revamps app in Tesco battle

MARKS & SPENCER has poached a top advertising executive to help boost the use of its app among shoppers, as the retailer strives to rival Tesco’s Clubcard.

Rachel Higham has been appointed as the new M&S chief digital and technology officer, taking a seat on the company’s executive committee after moving from WPP.

The hire comes as M&S looks to build out its technology capabilities.

Stuart Machin, the M&S chief executive, has already announced a review of its loyalty card programme, while he is also trying to encourage more customers to scan their Sparks cards when they shop. Last year, he said: “While active app and Sparks users did increase in the first half, we do remain somewhat off target of 10m app users.”

M&S is aiming to collect more data on its customers so it can give them a better personalised app experience.

Tesco and Sainsbury’s have already achieved success doing this by monitoring customers’ shopping habits to help tailor individual loyalty card offers.

Tesco has more than 20m Clubcard users, while Sainsbury’s has 18m people using its Nectar card. Mr Machin last year said: “We have a lot to do on personalisation, it’s not where I want it to be. Only 20pc of customers get a personalised conversation with us.”

He said he wanted to see investment in this area “accelerate in the next year or so”. M&S is also pushing to increase online sales. Mr Machin added: “We are pretty confident that in the medium term, in the longer term, online sales still have the opportunity to grow faster than stores.”

The appointment of a new chief digital officer was announced alongside news that Mark Lemming had been promoted to managing director of the M&S international division.

It sells its products in more than 100 countries and recently opened a distribution centre in Croatia.