Marks & Spencer’s top 10 festive favourites: slow-cooked turkey, shortbread snow globes, light-up gin and shapewear to hold it in!
Marks and Spencer saw a record Christmas trade during the latest festive period, with a record £80m sales alone on 23 December, the last Friday before Christmas.
Incoming CEO Stuart Machin can also take comfort in a 7.2 per cent rise in the clothing and home category to £3.6bn.
But it was the retailer’s Christmas food to order service – which saw orders jump 30 per cent on last year serving 440,000 customers during the period – which proved the stand-out winner.
Despite a cost-of-living crisis British shoppers still chose the splash the cash at M&S, City A.M takes a look at the items that proved to be a festive must-have.
One: Top turkey
The retailer sells more turkeys each December than its rivals over the last three years and its new slow cooked turkey became a £1m plus line in its first year on sale.
Two: Tiger prawns
The retailer sold seven million packs of party food, including a quarter of a million packs of its collection tiger prawns, a rise of 117 per cent on the previous year.
Three: Pigs in blankets
Customers turned to M&S for the trimmings as it sold 2 million pigs in blankets in 2022.
Four: Dine-in deals
A £10 steak night dine-in was M&S’s most popular ever launch – selling over 324,000 while its £12 pizza dine-in was the most popular in the last quarter of 2022 with over one million sold.
Five: Duvet wear
A cold spell of weather leading up to Christmas help shift 17,582 ‘duvet’ coats while a ‘Borg’ crewneck sweatshirt, coming in at £29.50 was a bestseller; up 31 per cent on the last year.
Six: Thermals
Thermals were up 62 per cent on last year as customers looked to keep the whole family warm; 1.1 million units in womenswear and 619,000 thermal menswear items. It also sold 125,000 duvets and thermal curtains, a new offering for 2022.
Seven: Sozzled snowglobes
Sparkles weren’t restricted to food, and almost 962,000 bottles of a light up snow globe gin liqueur were sold, in 2021 a shortage of the product saw some bottles – without contents – change hands on eBay for over £80.
Eight: Starry night shortbread
Over 460,000 starry night projection shortbread tins were sold, the tins included a light up projection of the night sky and a musical box which played ‘Jingle Bells’.
Nine: Sequins and shapewear
The return of the festive season signalled a big season for shapewear which was up 66 per cent on 2021, a cool comfort slip at £20 sold 20,000 units.
Ten:… and sequins
Sequins were a stand-out performer, selling over 140,000 pieces including 40,000 of a round neck top.