M&S renews sustainability deal

Iconic British retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) has renewed a key sustainability deal as it seeks to become a net zero business across its value chain by 2040

It will continue to leverage Retail Insight’s AI-powered solution, WasteInsight, to tackle food waste as part of its sustainability commitments.

First partnering with Retail Insight in 2021, its AI-powered solution, WasteInsight, has been instrumental in delivering dynamic markdown strategies to help M&S reduce food waste, while increasing sell-through.

WasteInsight puts retailers in control of food waste through data-led, actionable insights that support businesses’ entire waste journeys.  Analysing foundational retail data, the solution applies a Machine Learning (ML) model to provide dynamic markdown prices that encourage sell-through and reduce waste.  As well as enabling dynamic discounts, WasteInsight also addresses expiration management, offers more efficient donations to charities and drives improved forecasting accuracy, allowing retailers to sell more while wasting less.

Chris Thomas, head of product for store operations at M&S, said: “Our collaboration with Retail Insight over the past three years has been incredibly impactful.  The WasteInsight solution has delivered significant waste reduction benefits over the past three years, as well as improving overall operational efficiency.  We look forward to continuing to work with the Retail Insight team to help us meet our net zero targets.”