M&S stops on-line orders and points refunds after cyber assault

Marks & Spencer (M&S) says it has stopped taking on-line orders as the corporate struggles to get better from a cyber assault.

Prospects started reporting issues final weekend, and on Tuesday the retailer confirmed it was going through a “cyber incident”.

Now, M&S has totally paused orders on its web site and apps – together with for meals deliveries and garments – and says it is going to refund orders positioned by prospects on Friday.

The agency’s shares fell by 5% following the announcement, earlier than recovering.

On-line orders remained paused on Saturday morning.

“We’re really sorry for this inconvenience,” the retailer wrote in a submit on X.

“Our skilled crew – supported by main cyber consultants – is working extraordinarily onerous to restart on-line and app purchasing.

“We’re extremely grateful to our prospects, colleagues and companions for his or her understanding and help.”

It mentioned its shops stay open regardless of the problems affecting on-line ordering.

Beforehand, the agency was coping with issues which affected individuals utilizing contactless funds, Click on & Acquire, in addition to these paying with reward playing cards.

Because it suspended on-line ordering, M&S has responded to social media posts advising prospects that these issues persist.

“Present playing cards, e-gift playing cards and credit score receipts cannot at the moment be used as a fee methodology in retailer or on-line,” it mentioned in response to at least one individual on X.

But it surely advised one other that if individuals have already obtained an electronic mail telling them an merchandise is able to be collected, they need to have the ability to go into the shop and choose it up.

“We’re holding all parcels in retailer till additional discover, so there isn’t any threat of it being despatched again,” it mentioned.

However some individuals have criticised the agency for its dealing with of the outage, notably round its messaging to prospects.

“After being advised yesterday within the night the issue with reward playing cards was sorted, went in retailer at this time and was despatched away once more,” one individual advised the agency in a submit on X.

They mentioned it was the fourth day in a row they’d tried and failed to make use of their M&S reward card.

In the meantime, regardless of the frustrations, some individuals on-line have praised in-store employees over their service amid the issues, and known as for patrons to not take their frustrations out on staff.

However many nonetheless seem to have questions over how present purchases, orders and returns will probably be impacted by the continued fallout from the cyber assault.

On-line grocer Ocado, which sells M&S meals on its platform, is unaffected by the issues because it runs on a completely separate system.

A spokesperson from the Data Commissioner’s Workplace advised the BBC that M&S was “assessing the knowledge offered” after the retailer advised it in regards to the incident.

The agency beforehand mentioned on Tuesday it had reported the incident to the Nationwide Cyber Safety Centre (NCSC), and the Nationwide Crime Company advised the BBC it was working with the NCSC to help the agency.

In an replace to traders on Friday, M&S mentioned its choice to pause on-line orders within the UK fashioned a part of its “proactive administration” of the incident.

“The M&S crew – supported by main consultants – is working extraordinarily onerous to revive on-line operations and proceed to serve prospects effectively,” it mentioned.

Amid the persevering with fallout of this week’s cyber assault, nonetheless, consultants are speculating round what could also be behind it.

Nathaniel Jones, vice-president of safety and AI technique at cyber safety agency Darktrace, mentioned M&S halting on-line gross sales exhibits “the cascading affect these assaults can have on income streams”.

“It demonstrates how shortly cyber incidents can cripple retail operations throughout each digital and bodily channels,” he added.

William Wright, from cybersecurity agency Closed Door Safety, mentioned he believed it might have a “materials affect” on the agency.

“Information exhibits virtually 1 / 4 of the shop’s gross sales occur on-line, so irrespective of how lengthy this pause is put in place, it is going to damage M&S financially,” he mentioned.

The retailer is the most recent main model to expertise important disruption to its on-line providers in latest months.

Morrisons confronted big issues with its Christmas orders final yr, with deliveries cancelled and reductions not utilized.

This was adopted by two main banking outages on what was pay day for a lot of within the first two months of this yr.

In January, severe IT issues at Barclays affected the financial institution’s app and on-line banking. It was later disclosed Barclays might face compensation funds of £12.5m.

In February, a number of banks – notably Lloyds – confronted outages, leaving companies unable to pay employees.

Further reporting by Liv McMahon