M&S may have been relatively late to unlocking the potential of online shopping, but its e-commerce operations are now fully operational, and the retail giant is boosting them further by adding artificial intelligence to the mix.
It uses artificial intelligence to provide personalized style advice to shoppers based on their style preferences and body shape.
The news comes after the company launched its widely praised fall/winter 2024 collections. Its return to fashion appears to be going strong, with the company announcing it had captured the largest share of the womenswear market in nine years this summer.
Now the company is using AI to personalize the online shopping experience and suggest items shoppers might want to buy. There will be a human element, though: Stephen Langford, the retailer’s chief online marketing officer, says the retailer still needs humans on board — the company’s in-house style consultants — to check what the AI has come up with.
Shoppers can answer questions about their size, body shape and style preferences to access AI advice, and around 450,000 Marks & Spencer customers have done so so far, with a huge range of clothing options available to them afterwards.
It comes as Richard Price, general manager of clothing and home at Marks & Spencer, said the company wants to generate around half of its fashion sales online by 2028, up from a third at present.
The company has been delving into technology recently, including other AI applications, and said its live shopping shows now attract about 17,000 visitors per show with revenue reaching millions of dollars.
The company also uses AI to write most of its product descriptions, aiming to get products online faster, with 80% of those products now being created automatically compared to none a year ago.
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