skip to main content

2,634 shops listed | Last updated: Friday, March 29, 2024

Monitor Add a site

Former Tesco e-commerce head hired by M&S

Thursday, February 10, 2011 - 10:53 by Simon Crisp

Share on

Marks & Spencer has renewed its commitment to improving its presence in the e-commerce market by taking on Tesco executive, Laura Wade-Gery, who was previously in charge of online sales at the rival supermarket chain.

Wade-Gery was originally going to move up the ranks within Tesco, but an offer from M&S which involves the chance to develop its ability to provide safe shopping online to millions of UK customers, proved too tempting.

Last year M&S announced plans to increase its sales from e-commerce and m-commerce from £400 million in 2010 to a maximum of £1 billion by the year 2014, according to the Guardian.

Wade-Gery had been with Tesco for almost 14 years and was nabbed by new M&S CEO, Marc Bolland, who has made her his second big appointment since joining in August 2010.

M&S is not just planning a push in its e-commerce business but is also hoping that its mobile sales and those made via landlines will be increased with the arrival of Wade-Gery. At the moment there is no planned start date for the new executive, but the transition is expected to occur in the coming weeks.

M&S was recently praised by UK consumers, as offering the best portal for safe shopping online to those who want to do so from their mobile phones. Whether the arrival of a new director will make the supermarket's online offerings wildly different from their current state, is hard to determine, but the experience of its new acquisition will, doubtlessly, be useful.

M&S will be facing a greater degree of competition in the e-commerce market this year, as Morrisons has set its sights on creating a place for its customers to enjoy online shopping in the next few months, so the fight to retain customers and win new fans will be tough.