By James Rodger
M&S has issued a major update for anyone who has shopped online with the retailer since the massive cyber attacked. As the slow rollout and resumption of online services continues, M&S says it will be fully restored within the next month. M&S will bring back the rest of its online services in July including the likes of next day delivery and Click and Collect too. Most of the impact of the cyberattack which hit Marks & Spencer in April will be behind it by August, Chief Executive Stuart Machin told shareholders at the retailer’s annual general meeting on Tuesday. He said that the half of its online store which is not yet open will be fully restored within the next four weeks, and other systems which are currently being rebuilt will be operating by August. READ MORE Rachel Reeves set to cut cash ISA allowance from 拢20,000 on July 15 “I’m really hoping by August, the majority of this is behind us, and customers will see the full M&S,” Machin said. Clothing sales at M&S slumped by a fifth in the four weeks to 25 May compared with the same period a year before after the website, which usually accounts for a third of M&S鈥檚 clothing and homeware sales, stopped taking orders. M&S was forced to stop trade on its website 鈥 which sells clothing, homeware, gifts and flowers 鈥 on 25 April and did not restart trade until 10 June. M&S said the cyber-attack was 鈥渁 moment in time鈥, and its stores had performed well 鈥渁cross all fashion categories and particularly womenswear鈥 when orders on its website were paused. 鈥淭his underlines the strength of our product offer 鈥 where quality and value perceptions remain market-leading and style perceptions continuing to increase 鈥 and loyalty of our customers. A big thank you to them for shopping with us.鈥 Getting all services working again is a key milestone for the retailer, according to Clive Black, the head of consumer research at M&S鈥檚 broker, Shore Capital. 鈥淭hey need to get click and collect back up. They need to get [their hi-tech distribution centre] Castle Donington working. They need to get the full assortment online,鈥 said Black. 鈥淚t may be August before you actually see a normalised M&S clothing offer in store and online.鈥 鈥淭hey will probably try and stay at full price initially, at least, to get that money back. But I鈥檓 assuming they have a lot of excess stock, so they will eventually need to start discounting more to get through some of that, as they won鈥檛 be able to keep selling more seasonal summer items,鈥 said Pippa Stephens, a senior apparel analyst at GlobalData.