M&S stops on-line orders and problems 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.

Customers started reporting issues ultimate weekend, and on Tuesday the store showed it used to be going through a “cyber incident”.

Now, M&S has solely paused orders on its website online and apps – together with for meals deliveries and garments – and says it’ll refund orders positioned by way of shoppers on Friday.

The company’s stocks fell by way of 5% following the announcement, earlier than getting better.

Online orders remained paused on Saturday morning.

“We are truly sorry for this inconvenience,” the store wrote in a put up on X.

“Our experienced team – supported by leading cyber experts – is working extremely hard to restart online and app shopping.

“We are extremely thankful to our shoppers, colleagues and companions for his or her figuring out and strengthen.”

It said its stores remain open despite the issues affecting online ordering.

Previously, the firm was dealing with problems which affected people using contactless payments, Click & Collect, as well as those paying with gift cards.

Since it suspended online ordering, M&S has responded to social media posts advising customers that these problems persist.

“Gift playing cards, e-gift playing cards and credit score receipts can not these days be used as a cost means in retailer or on-line,” it mentioned according to one individual on X.

But it told another that if people have already received an email telling them an item is ready to be collected, they should be able to go into the store and pick it up.

“We’re conserving all parcels in retailer till additional understand, so there is no chance of it being despatched again,” it mentioned.

But some people have criticised the firm for its handling of the outage, particularly around its messaging to customers.

“After being informed the day gone by within the night the issue with present playing cards used to be taken care of, went in retailer nowadays and used to be despatched away once more,” one individual informed the company in a put up on X.

They said it was the fourth day in a row they had tried and failed to use their M&S gift card.

Meanwhile, despite the frustrations, some people online have praised in-store staff over their service amid the problems, and called for customers not to take their frustrations out on workers.

But many still appear to have questions over how existing purchases, orders and returns will be impacted by the continued fallout from the cyber attack.

Online grocer Ocado, which sells M&S food on its platform, is unaffected by the problems as it runs on an entirely separate system.

A spokesperson from the Information Commissioner’s Office told the BBC that M&S was “assessing the guidelines equipped” after the retailer told it about the incident.

The firm previously said on Tuesday it had reported the incident to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), and the National Crime Agency told the BBC it was working with the NCSC to support the firm.

In an update to investors on Friday, M&S said its decision to pause online orders in the UK formed part of its “proactive control” of the incident.

“The M&S workforce – supported by way of main professionals – is operating extraordinarily exhausting to revive on-line operations and proceed to serve shoppers smartly,” it said.

Amid the continuing fallout of this week’s cyber attack, however, experts are speculating around what may be behind it.

Nathaniel Jones, vice-president of security and AI strategy at cyber security firm Darktrace, said M&S halting online sales shows “the cascading have an effect on those assaults could have on income streams”.

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

William Wright, from cybersecurity firm Closed Door Security, said he believed it could have a “subject material have an effect on” at the company.

“Data presentations nearly 1 / 4 of the shop’s gross sales occur on-line, so regardless of how lengthy this pause is installed position, it’ll harm M&S financially,” he said.

The retailer is the latest major brand to experience significant disruption to its online services in recent months.

Morrisons confronted massive issues of its Christmas orders ultimate yr, with deliveries cancelled and reductions now not implemented.

This was followed by two major banking outages on what was pay day for many in the first two months of this year.

In January, severe IT issues at Barclays affected the financial institution’s app and on-line banking. It used to be later disclosed Barclays may face reimbursement bills of £12.5m.

In February, a number of banks – particularly Lloyds – confronted outages, leaving companies not able to pay body of workers.

Additional reporting by way of Liv McMahon