British retail chain Marks & Spencer (M&S) has temporarily withdrawn its online sales. This decision follows a cyber event that endangered its virtual infrastructure. This decision is further evidence of the company’s commitment to proactively managing the situation while prioritizing customer safety. The company issued the incident to the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Meanwhile, the National Crime Agency is partnering with NCSC to protect M&S as it faces this stormy period.
The cyber incident also forced M&S to issue a message on its website to let customers know that it had ceased all online orders. The disruption has serious implications for M&S. IKEA Last Christmas, IKEA had trouble with online orders, such as canceled deliveries and non-existent discounts. Passengers were the first to react. The company’s share price dove after the latest debacle. It dropped 5% immediately after the announcement.
Issues Customers were first alerted to the issues on M&S’s online offering last weekend. As a result, the company has announced that they will do all parcels in store for the time being. This way, they remove the uncertainty of products coming back. In a recent announcement, M&S shared the exciting news that… Gift cards, e-gift cards, and credit receipts as payment in-store or online are not accepted at this time.
M&S has emphasized that its team, supported by leading cyber experts, is working diligently to restore online operations and continue serving customers effectively.
“The M&S team – supported by leading experts – is working extremely hard to restore online operations and continue to serve customers well.” – M&S
Experts say the cyber breach of the nature and scope could have severe consequences both financially and reputationally for M&S. William Wright of Closed Door Security framed it at distance in-store shopping still barely accounts for 75% of the store’s sales based on the data. He stated, “No matter how long this pause is put in place, it will hurt M&S financially.”
Nathaniel Jones, vice president of Security & AI Strategy at Darktrace, echoed this sentiment, noting that halting online sales demonstrates “the cascading impact these attacks can have on revenue streams.” Such accidents are not isolated to M&S; other large companies have been similarly disrupted in recent months. In February, banks including Lloyds suffered outages that stopped businesses paying their employees. At the same time, Barclays faltered under serious IT problems back in January, paralyzing their mobile app and online banking operations.
M&S remains deeply focused on restoring its online services as this worldwide crisis continues to eventuate. They’re providing clarity and maintaining open lines of communications with customers and stakeholders. The firm has said it is appreciative of the patience and support of its customers and partners during this transition.
“We are incredibly grateful to our customers, colleagues and partners for their understanding and support.” – M&S