Marks & Spencer closing UK stores to catch up with e-commerce rivals

M&S has been slow to embrace e-commerce and to respond to a slump in foot traffic on the UK's shopping streets

Marks & Spencer Group owned up to its mistakes, saying it needs to close more stores and catch up to rivals in e-commerce as Chairman Archie Norman tries to pull the UK retailer out of a crisis that has dragged on for more than a decade.
 
The shares rose as much as 6.6 percent early Wednesday in London, the most since July 2016, after the retailer said it’s accelerating a drive to become a “more commercial, more digital business.” A decline in sales of food and clothing in the fourth quarter underlined the need for a restructuring of the