Marks & Spencer has apologised to customers for disruptions caused by a “cyber incident”, which affected contactless payments and the collection of online orders in its stores.
The incident began on Monday [21 April 2025], impacting contactless payments and click and collect orders across the country. This followed a separate technical problem on Saturday, which only affected contactless payments.
The retailer assured customers and staff that they did not need to take any action, suggesting their data has not been compromised.
M&S stated that it was “working hard to resolve” the delays to click and collect orders, while stores remained open and its website and app were operating normally.
In a statement to the stock exchange, M&S said it had made “minor, temporary changes to store operations” to protect customers and the business, and was “sorry for any inconvenience experienced.”
The retailer stressed that it had reported the incident to the National Cyber Security Centre and hired cybersecurity experts to investigate and manage the issue, while taking further actions to protect its network.
CEO of M&S, Stuart Machin took to social media sites to issue an apology to customers as well, following complaints on a range of platforms. Shoppers reported they were unable to pay using contactless methods or collect their online orders. There were also reported issues with gift cards and returns, as well as queues instore.
This marks the second major technology issue for M&S in the past 12 months, with a third-party service failure having taken their website and app offline for several hours in May 2024.
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