Marks & Spencer is to launch an online grocery shopping service this autumn as it looks to cash in on the success of its food halls. The retailer confirmed that a team of executives was currently drawing up a battle plan ahead of trials this autumn, allowing M&S customers to order food online and have it delivered to their home (The Guardian).

M&S currently sells online party food - for collection in store - and delivers wine plus a very limited selection of gift foods such as chocolate to customers’ homes. The new trial will be the first time its wider grocery offering will be made available online for home delivery (Sky News). Steve Rowe, chief executive of M&S, said the group was continuing “to review food online carefully”. “It has not cost us anything over the last five years by not being online with food. Our customers haven’t moved yet, but they will and we need to ensure that we are ready with the right response,” he said (The Telegraph).

Amazon is to create 1,200 new permanent jobs as it opens a new warehouse in Warrington where staff will work alongside the online retail giant’s robots (The Guardian). The site, in the Cheshire town of Warrington, is one of four “fulfilment centres” the company is opening in Britain in 2017, taking its nationwide workforce to 24,000 (The Financial Times £).

Meanwhile, Amazon has started breaking out key logistics revenues in its quarterly earnings, underscoring the growing importance of such services provided for other sellers. The Seattle-based company revealed that these accounted for $6.4bn in sales in the quarter, more than one in every six dollars of revenues during the quarter. Logistics services were the fastest-growing part of Amazon’s retail business, growing 36 per cent from a year earlier on a currency-adjusted basis. (The Financial Times £)

Pret a Manger launches charm offensive to recruit British workers as the sandwich chain has begun advertising in jobcentres and on social media as it faces up to potential staff shortage after Brexit (The Guardian). Pret has previously said that only one in 50 people who applied to work at the chain was from the UK, because Brits did not consider it a “desirable place to work” (The Financial Times £). Pret said said staff at the high-street chain are of 110 different nationalities, with 65% of those from outside the UK being EU citizens (The Daily Mail)

The online fashion retailer behind the plus-sized Jacamo and Simply Be brands has announced a partnership with Tesco, as profits plunged by 20 per cent despite a rise in sales (The Times £). Brown, the online fashion retailer, has unveiled a tie-up with Tesco to sell its plus-sized ranges on the supermarket’s website and in four eastern European shops (The Telegraph).

Households are losing their swagger as inflation takes its toll on incomes, raising concerns on the country’s high streets, according to two surveys. (The Times £)

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