Marks & Spencer is using artificial intelligence to advise shoppers on their clothing choices based on their body shape and style preferences, as part of efforts to boost online sales.
The 130-year-old retailer is using technology to personalize consumers’ online experience and suggest items to buy.
Stephen Langford, the company’s online director, said M&S was using AI to adapt the language used to address shoppers, tailoring it to six different preferences, such as emotional, descriptive language or more direct prose.
One of its goals is to personalize online interactions with shoppers, she said, for example by prioritizing products most relevant to an individual. For example, male shoppers would be less likely to receive the latest deals on bras.
Shoppers can also choose to complete a questionnaire about their size, body shape and style preferences to receive relevant outfit ideas created by M&S’s AI-powered technology.
Langford said 450,000 M&S shoppers had so far used the quiz, which allows shoppers to choose clothes from 40 million options.
The service combines insights from the £7bn company’s in-house stylists with shopper information to offer advice on what types of clothes can be paired together.
Automation of product descriptions using AI has increased from almost nothing to 80% in the past year, although Langford added: “We still need a human in the process” to verify the output.
Richard Price, managing director of M&S clothing and home, said the company was “pushing online commerce forward” with the aim of making half of its fashion sales digital by 2028, up from about a third at present.
The retailer, which has 240 full-line stores and 325 food outlets, reported a 41% rise in profits last year, while sales rose 9.4% to £13bn.
Fashion and home goods online Sales increased by 7.8% at M&S last year. M&S attracted 1 million more customers last year, two-thirds of whom arrived via the internet.
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The surge in online sales has been driven in part by an 80% increase in social media marketing and advertising spending year-on-year, with the company now spending more on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok than it does on TV. Nearly a third of its revenue generated through TikTok comes from entirely new customers.
Launching the retailer’s autumn ranges on Wednesday, Price said M&S had taken its biggest share of the womenswear market in nine years this summer, despite what he called a “tough” season amid cool and wet conditions until the end of July.
The retailer has long been the market leader in clothing categories such as knitwear and lingerie, but has been gaining market share in other areas including denim. It hopes to overtake Next and become the biggest seller of occasionwear as the winter party season approaches.