Asos has turned to online stylists powered by artificial intelligence as it attempts to win back customers and reverse a fall in sales.
The online fashion retailer said sales had fallen 12% in the year to 31 August, and City analysts predicted another year of declining sales ahead.
The company is testing “Styled for You”, which uses AI trained on its database of 100,000 curated outfits to suggest items that might go together with those a shopper has already bought or has searched.
If a shopper signed up to its loyalty programme is buying a dress, for example, a feed on the Asos website may suggest how the item can be complemented with a jacket and heels or given a more casual look with a sweater and trainers.
The choices offered up are picked from Asos ranges based on consumer trends, and the shopper’s history and preferences are expressed when they sign up to its app.
Retailers are turning to the technology to improve the shopping experience and internal processes. Marks & Spencer last year began using artificial intelligence to advise shoppers on their outfit choices based on their body shape and style preferences.
Asos is also using AI to help speed up its design process by showing what a product could look like on a model or in different colours.
The company said action to cut discounting and deter unprofitable shoppers – who return lots of items and buy little – had contributed to the decline in sales as well as a “soft consumer backdrop”.
The retailer said on Friday that annual pre-tax losses had narrowed to £282m, from £379m the year before.
José Antonio Ramos Calamonte, the chief executive of Asos, said he wanted to “make Asos not just a place to shop, but a destination for inspiration and style”.
Asos has been struggling to turn around its fortunes since a boom in sales during the pandemic lockdowns which was followed by a slump when high street shops reopened that left it with a £1bn of unwanted stock.
New competition from Shein, the fast-growing Chinese-founded marketplace, as well as slick operators such as Next, which combines high street stores with quick online service, have hurt Asos’s sales and left it loss-making for more than three years.
after newsletter promotion
The company introduced new charges on returns and banned shoppers who return too many items earlier this year, which it said had cut…
Source link
Disclaimer
We strive to uphold the highest ethical standards in all of our reporting and coverage. We blogs.grocliq.com want to be transparent with our readers about any potential conflicts of interest that may arise in our work. It’s possible that some of the investors we feature may have connections to other businesses, including competitors or companies we write about. However, we want to assure our readers that this will not have any impact on the integrity or impartiality of our reporting. We are committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news and information to our audience, and we will continue to uphold our ethics and principles in all of our work. Thank you for your trust and support.
Website Upgradation is going on for any glitch kindly connect at [email protected]
