M&S using AI as personalised style guru in hopes to boost sales

Marks & Spencer is using artificial intelligence to advise shoppers on their outfit choices based on their body shape and style preferences, as part of efforts to increase online sales.

The 130-year-old retailer is using the technology to personalise consumers’ online experience, and suggest items to buy.

Stephen Langford, the company’s director of online, said M&S was using AI to adapt the language used to address shoppers, tailoring to six different preferences such as emotional, descriptive language or more straightforward prose.

One of its aims is to personalise online interactions with shoppers, he said, such as prioritising products most relevant for an individual. Male shoppers would be less likely to be offered the latest deals on bras, for example.

Shoppers can also opt to fill out a quiz about their size, body shape and style preferences to receive relevant outfit ideas created by M&S’s AI-driven technology.

Langford said 450,000 M&S shoppers had used the quiz so far, which can pick outfits from 40m options.

The service combines ideas from the £7bn company’s in-house stylists with information from the shopper to offer tips on which types of garment may go together.

The automation of product descriptions using AI has risen to 80% from almost nothing in the past year, although Langford added: “We still need a human in the process” to sense-check the output.

Richard Price, the managing director of clothing and home for M&S, said it was “turbo-charging online” with the aim of clocking up half its fashion sales digitally by 2028, up from about one-third now.

The retailer, which has 240 full-line stores and 325 food outlets, reported a 41% jump in profits last year while sales rose 9.4% to £13bn.

Online fashion and homeware sales rose by 7.8% at M&S last financial year. M&S attracted 1 million more customers last year, two-thirds of whom came via the internet.

The increase in online sales has partly been driven by an 80% rise in spending on social media marketing and advertising year on year, with the company now spending more on the likes of Facebook, Instagram and TikTok than on TV. Almost a third of its revenue generated via TikTok comes from completely new customers.

Launching the retailer’s autumn ranges on Wednesday, Price said M&S had taken the largest share of the womenswear market in nine years this summer, despite what he called a “tough” season amid cool and wet conditions until late July.

The retailer has long been the market leader in clothing categories such as knitwear and lingerie, but it has been gaining market share in other areas, including denim. It hopes to overtake Next to become the biggest seller of garments for occasions as the winter party season approaches.