M&S tops customer retention league as Morrisons slips

by Noelle McElhatton, marketingdirectmag.co.uk 04-Sep-09, 10:11

LONDON - Marks & Spencer is the most improved of Britain's food retailers for customer loyalty over the past decade while Morrisons's customer loyalty has slipped, new research says.

Though Asda tops the current customer retention rankings, M&S's performance is noticeable for its improvement over the past decade, according to a new survey by TNS, the market research company owned by WPP.

Customers of Morrisons and Aldi are less satisfied than at the start of the decade, as a result of expanding beyond their traditional demographics.

In 2000 M&S suffered the worst retention rate of any of the big British retailers. In the latest TNS research, the company is second only to Asda and ahead of Waitrose, J Sainsbury, Aldi, Tesco and Morrisons.

In the past 10 years, M&S has launched convenience store brand Simply Food, modernised its stores and introduced promotional offers such as the ‘Dine in for £10' promotion.

Gemma McIntosh, head of stakeholder management at TNS, told the Times: "These [loyalty] figures show M&S is a real success story. Back in 2000, sales were falling and credibility was low. But the effort to modernise the brand has been hugely successful.

"Morrisons have gone from being a northern store to a nationwide store and that happened overnight. It had a loyal customer base up north and they have diluted that emotional affinity." New, more affluent customers tend to use Aldi for specific items, which reduces its loyalty score.

TNS conducted the survey online, interviewing 2000 shoppers between 9-17 June.