M&S is set to add self checkouts to changing rooms across its 180 clothing stores to stop customers from having to queue twice.

The food and fashion giant said it aimed to have the new technology implemented across more than 100 shops by early 2028, The Telegraph reported.

The technology will be installed across its whole clothing estate once it has completed a wider store revamp.

M&S operations director Sacha Berendji said: “We’d like customers to be able to walk straight into the fitting room with no queue, try on what they’ve chosen, then pay there and just walk out.”

The executive explained the retailer was currently installing one self checkout per changing room area, and would be adding more based on demand from shoppers.

The checkouts have already been installed across 28 of the retailer’s recently refurbished sites, including its Fosse Park flagship in Leicester.

The move comes despite M&S chairman Archie Norman having previously warned that shoplifting was “creeping in” among middle-class shoppers due to self checkouts failing to scan products.

Norman said earlier this year: “With the reduction of service you get in a lot of shops, a lot of people think: ‘This didn’t scan properly, or it’s very difficult to scan these things through and I shop here all the time. It’s not my fault, I’m owed it’”.

However, Berendji said the retailer would have staff members “hosting” changing room areas to ensure shoppers paid for their items.

He said: “Shoplifting is a major problem in this country, but there are things that we’re all doing to make sure we can mitigate some of those losses.

“This is all about choice. If you want to be served by a colleague, that’s absolutely OK and you always can be. But if people want to serve themselves, they can do that instead.”

The changes come under a wider revamp of M&S’s larger shops, including its home, food and clothing ranges and individual food halls.

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