What's up with M & S on-line stock?

[Veritysaysmaybe76]

Just settled in for a quick half hour of online shopping - wanted to buy some basic navy and black wide leg jersey joggers and trousers - tried to buy one pair out of six different styles and they are all out of stock in 18 long, and by the looks of it, they were out of stock in the majority of sizes! So I put my credit card away unused!

These are very basic cornerstone items! What is going on at Marks I wonder?

Am I just late or what?

I've just come back from the store. Nothing in stock unless size 20 or 8. And the trousers are
All so bloody long.

I’ve got long legs so I am happy about the trouser length; weirdly the rest of me is short and chubby though! 😂

That’s strange that they are out of stock in-store as well! Imagine all of the purchases they are missing out on!

i guess on-line shopping is going to become more and more like this as the economics are so tenuous; so many shops already e-mail you when items are back in stock, I can imagine that extending to the point where the buyers stock only on firm demand.

It’s certainly not working as well as it should at the moment.

I’ve found this online and in store recently. I went to get one of their basic jumpers that comes in about 17 colours. There were about four colours in my size. A pretty common 12…you’d think they’d have hundreds in stock online. Same with their jeans.

I can almost never shop there and come back with even close to everything I was looking for, either in store or online. I also find the email when in stock soul destroying - so many times it comes back as "Your item is still not in stock and as it's been so long, we are cancelling your request". So annoying. Even for basics like school trousers, jeans and jumpers.

They've just had a sale so that might be why it's been worse than usual. Annoying though.

I'm wondering if they haven't got full winter stocks in yet plus people tend to buy early now?

I find this with most online shopping. I'm a size 10 and nexr, m&s, h&m are usually out of stock for most items.

I’ve found the same. I wanted to buy a cashmere jumper for DMs birthday. All out of stock in all but one or two sizes.

It's so frustrating; I need petite/short length which are rarely available in store & have been looking online both in M&S & Next this afternoon for jeans & any I like are oos.

Haven't even started on the Knitwear although there is more choice of stores as don't need petite in jumpers

It's been awful for years both online and in-store...they always over order in some sizes but can't get a 10 or a 12 for love nor money!

I know they can't restock popular lines/sizes quickly due to the length of time in shipping stock to the UK but you'd think they'd have sorted this out by now 🙄

Not sure which ones you're looking at but I think they have quite a bit of stock as I was looking at these recently. Maybe you were looking at out of season summer stock?

Brushed winter versions are stocked:

https://www.marksandspencer.com/cotton-rich-brushed-wide-leg-joggers/p/clp60706070#intid=pidpg1pip48g4r2c1%7Cprodflagg_New

I image that they are prioritising winter stock now.

They are much better and restock all the time now, whilst something is in season and popular.

Try Woolovers for your DM Best, they have some lovely jumpers including some cashmere.

I had 20% off knitwear on my sparks card recently and bought one of these. I imagine that lots of other people did too, which is probably why they are low stock.

I've just ordered a swimming costume and some shirts. All in stock in my sizes.

I went to a large M&S last weekend planning on having a good spend.
They didn't have my size (12) in anything that I liked. I didn't buy a thing. Was so disappointed.

I think they probably (sensibly) want to stock as much as they will sell over the season rather than make sure every customer who might want something can find what they want at any time ever.

Also, other people buy things don't they, which means things sell out!

I had no issues ordering exactly what I wanted from them over the last couple of days incidentally.

Well I have just logged in again, eight days after my op, thinking new stock may have come in, but no, absolutely no availability.
I will be looking elsewhere now.

I do understand that stock flow is one of the hardest things to get right but wanting navy blue and black wide leg trousers at the beginning of October hardly qualifies as a customer wanting something at “any” time! When else do you buy dark trousers except in autumn?

I've had 2 online orders cancelled now because what I ordered is out of stock. Getting a bit cheesed off now.

Been in store for jeans today, no wide leg and few straight leg to be had, just checked and same online. Odd. Loads of polyester sweaters though.

I wonder what is going on?

Are they in trouble financially? Does anyone know?

Yep this has really annoyed me about M&S recently - in three good-sized stores, no jumpers actually made of wool. All polyester. Racks and racks of synthetic jumpers but not a single merino one.

Imo after years (decades) in the fashion wilderness, M & S has vastly improved recently and plenty are finding much to like. As others say, demand is outstripping supply.
I’m a size 12 and encountering the same problems as others in-store (time wasting for me and losing trade for them) but not online. As a result I’ve given up going into their clothing departments. I wish M & S had the unique bar code system used by Next for an efficient and immediate return.
What irks me is that lines are short lived. M & S very quickly moves on. Blink and I miss something never to be had again.

Yes I am finding Next much more efficient.

And they stock the longer length trousers I like.