M&S Taps Natalie Crane as Head of Digital Marketing

A high-profile hire for the high street stalwart

Marks & Spencer has appointed Natalie Crane as its new head of digital marketing, a move that places a seasoned performance-marketing specialist at the centre of the retailer’s online ambitions. Crane confirmed the news on LinkedIn, describing the role as an opportunity to help shape the next chapter of the iconic brand’s digital journey and to steer the strategic expansion of its online reach.

Her arrival comes at a moment when the company’s digital channels are no longer a side project but a core part of how the business grows. For a heritage name with a vast store estate, the challenge is less about launching an online shop and more about making every touchpoint - app, website, collection point and shop floor - work as one.

A career built on performance and portfolio brands

Crane’s CV reads like a tour of British retail’s digital evolution. She joins from Frasers Group, where she had served as head of digital marketing since July 2025, having first arrived at the group in August 2024 as head of performance marketing.

Before that, she spent time at Boohoo Group, leading performance marketing across a broad portfolio of digital labels - Debenhams, Coast, Oasis, Warehouse, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Burton and MissPap among them. That experience of running acquisition and retention for multiple brands at once is likely to be valuable in a business as varied as M&S, where food and clothing pull in very different audiences.

Her earlier roles at Sainsbury’s and Habitat gave her grounding in both grocery and homeware, two categories that map neatly onto M&S’s own food and home divisions. The result is a career spanning fast-fashion e-commerce, supermarket scale and home retail - a combination that suits a group selling everything from sandwiches to sofas.

Why online matters to the turnaround

Digital channels have become a central pillar of the turnaround strategy at M&S, acting as a primary driver of customer acquisition and market share gains across both food and clothing. The retailer has invested heavily in omnichannel capabilities: widening click-and-collect availability, modernising distribution centres and reworking its customer loyalty offer through its mobile app.

The company has also been working to knit its digital platforms more tightly to its bricks-and-mortar network. That integration has helped it reach younger shoppers and broaden the range of third-party brands available on its website, turning the online store into a marketplace as well as a shop window.

For a marketing lead, that means the brief goes well beyond paid search and social. It covers how customers discover products on the app, how they move between browsing online and trying in store, and how loyalty data can be used to keep them coming back. Getting that right is increasingly what separates the retail winners from the rest.

What comes next

The appointment signals that M&S intends to keep pushing on digital as a growth engine rather than treating it as a support function. With a background steeped in measurable performance marketing, Crane is well placed to focus attention on the metrics that matter: acquisition costs, conversion, repeat purchase and the share of sales that start online.

The wider retail sector will be watching closely. Many established British chains are grappling with the same question - how to modernise without losing the heritage that customers value. M&S has made notable progress in clothing and home e-commerce, and bringing in fresh leadership for digital marketing suggests the group wants to accelerate rather than consolidate.

For shoppers, the practical effects may show up in smoother app experiences, better-targeted offers and a more joined-up journey between the website and the nearest store. For the business, the test will be whether online can keep delivering the customer growth that has underpinned its recent momentum.