Why M&S is going downhill, an example ...

So I was surf-shopping on the Interweb for a jacket.

Amongst the opinions presented to me by a  Google shopping search was one at Marks and Spencer. 

This means someone at M&S had made the effort to ensure their product appeared as a result of this search. 

However, sizes are a funny thing, and I wanted the jacket for when I travel abroad for work, so it needed to be 'roomy' to be comfortable on flights. Which meant I wanted to try on several sizes, essentially to buy one that is - by size - too big for me.

So I clicked on the 'find in a UK store' link, where I put in my postcode - and got this:

That's it. One store. 

Yes, it is the one closest to me, but they [the digital marketing team at M&S] obviously think I am incapable and/or unwilling to travel to any one of the numerous stores they have in my area. Perhaps I do only want to shop in Sunderland, but they could try and tempt me to another by telling me where the jacket is in stock. Indeed, one of their biggest stores in the country is at Gateshead's Metro Centre, which is just down the road.  

And here's the kicker - and it relates to my non-marketers in digital marketing rants - if I was in a store and they didn't have my size, any decent sales person would ask 'shall I see if they have one in another branch?' and then ask where I would be willing to travel to.

And if decent sales folk were involved in the development of e-commerce sites they would tell the techies to make that happen online. 

It ain't rocket science, it's just good old fashioned customer service. Or is that good old fashioned sales?