Marks & Spencer has launched a huge half-price clothing sale as the high street shutdown leaves retailers with mountains of unsold spring and summer fashion. The retailer has called the promotional blitz a rainbow sale and is handing 10 per cent of takings to NHS charities. The sale promises shoppers discounts of at least 50 per cent across the store. The womenswear offers include summer dresses reduced from £40 to £15 and half-price jumpsuits at £29.
M&S is donating 10 per cent of the purchase price, excluding VAT, of all rainbow sale items to NHS Charities Together. Shoppers can get online orders via a contactless home delivery service or from collection points in stores situated next to food halls. They will also be able pick up bargains in the retailer’s 290 shared clothing and food branches, which have kept sections of their fashion floors open to sell clothing essentials.
The retailer has also confirmed its new clothing and homewares boss, Richard Price, will arrive in July. He has worked at M&S before, for seven years, but left in 2012 after becoming disillusioned with the retailer’s strategy at the time.
Price is returning to M&S as the pandemic sends shockwaves through the retail industry. High street retailers have been scrambling to cancel stockorders for next season as the impact of the crisis points to weak demand for the rest of the year.
