Marks & Spencer — Enterprise Commerce Modernization
Client
Marks & Spencer (FTSE 100, UK Retail)
Engagement Period
Sep 2021 – Present
Overview
Protize worked with Marks & Spencer to drive enterprise-wide technology modernization across multiple portfolios. The engagement focused on upgrading architecture, improving delivery velocity, and enabling a scalable, experimentation-ready digital platform.
Business Context
M&S is one of the largest retailers in the UK with high digital traffic and complex multi-team engineering operations. The platform required modernization to improve user experience, release confidence, and operational efficiency.
Challenges
- Legacy frontend and platform constraints
- Inconsistent engineering standards across teams
- High-scale traffic performance demands
- Limited experimentation and analytics capabilities
- Need for better security and delivery reliability
Protize Scope
- Engineering coaching and agile transformation
- Multi-portfolio delivery leadership
- Hiring and capability development support
- Frontend architecture redesign for enterprise rollout
- Platform enablement for experimentation, caching, analytics, and security
Technology Stack
React, TypeScript, Next.js, GraphQL, Mesh, Terraform, CI/CD, Playwright, Jest, Akamai, WCS, Azure, New Relic, LaunchDarkly (LD)
What We Delivered
- Modern frontend architecture aligned for large-scale rollout
- Edge-function oriented delivery approach for performance and cost control
- Platform standards for experimentation, analytics, caching, and CMS integration
- Test automation and release hardening with Playwright + Jest + CI/CD
- Observability and controlled rollout foundations via New Relic and LaunchDarkly
Outcomes
- Architecture designed to support 50M+ page views/month
- Cost strategy targeting up to 50% optimization
- Modern stack rollout contributing to ~2x page speed
- Stronger platform reliability and experimentation readiness
Team & Delivery Scale
Protize consulted and led initiatives across platform and product portfolios, coordinating transformation efforts with 100+ engineers.