M&S have conducted their quarter 3 2014/2015 management statement, and the news aren’t good.

Marc Bolland, Chief Executive, said: “We had a difficult quarter in General Merchandise, dominated by unseasonal conditions and an unsatisfactory performance in our e-commerce distribution centre.”

This is the second year in a row that M&S is blaming the weather conditions. (see Q3 2013/2014 press release).

Not a surprise  that M Bolland named their distribution centre as a cause of disruption as the CEO of John Lewis made an allusion to it on Monday.

Blaming the e-commerce distribution centre is not the solution on itself. I recommend M&S to review their entire ecosystem and capacity planning.

Should the retailers adapt their online stock levels to their actual capacity to deliver on time and on quality? Or the other way around, should they adapt their delivery capacity to meet the demand? In other words, does it make sense to sell 100 items when they know that they can deliver only 50 on time and on quality?

More information on Taking orders is great but how about delivering on time and on quality?