18 September 2006
Marks & Spencer (M&S) boss Stuart Rose has commented on the influence online sales have had on his range of retail stores.
He said that he does not believe the increased use of the internet will lead customers to staying away from his stores and choosing to shop only online.
Mr Rose told BBC Radio 4 that retail stores have to possess a variety of channels to make themselves successful in the industry. He added that as long as there are great shops customers will come but the key was to present people with enough choice.
He said: "What we are finding is that what people do is they come on to the website and they almost do a reconnaissance; they do price searching, they do research, they of course research other retailers as well.
"They do buy online increasingly; we get a million hits a week and our sales actually online are ahead of our total sales in the business, much like John Lewis and Next as you've seen this week, but they don't do it exclusively."
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