Asos turns to AI stylists to win back shoppers after sales slide 12%
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 could go together with those a shopper has already bought or has searched,If a shopper signed up to its loyalty programme is seeking advice on buying a dress, for example, the AI stylist on the Asos app 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.
Separately, the site already offers suggestions for all shoppers via an automated feed.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, its chief executive, 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 was followed by a slump when high street shops reopened it was left 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.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionThe company introduced new charges on returns and banned shoppers who return too many items earlier this year, which it said had cut return rates by 1.
5 percentage points.“With the most difficult work behind us, I’m more confident than ever that we have the right strategy and capabilities to achieve our ambition to become the most exciting destination for fashion-lovers,” Calamonte said.Anubhav Malhotra, a retail analyst at the investment bank Panmure Liberum, said the fall in sales at Asos was worse than expected and the company’s guidance for the year ahead suggested it was “bracing for another year of sales decline”.He said Asos’s actions had so far “managed to plug the holes in a leaking bucket as sales have declined by more than a third from their 2022 peak”.However, Malhotra added: “We remain concerned that significant challenges remain for Asos as the competition in fast fashion, in omnichannel retail and in multi-brand retailing has increased significantly.
”Shares in the retailer fell by as much as 10% on Friday.
Starmer accuses ‘spineless’ Farage of failure to tackle racism in Reform party
Nigel Farage has been accused of being “spineless” by the prime minister and a “coward” by Dulwich college contemporaries over his response to allegations of racism.Keir Starmer said the Reform UK leader had “questions to answer” about alleged comments and chants as a teenager that include songs about the Holocaust, and accusations of bullying towards minority ethnic schoolboys.He added that Farage had a “track record” when it came to racism, pointing to his failure to discipline his fellow Reform MP Sarah Pochin after she complained about the number of black and brown people she saw in adverts.Speaking to reporters on the way to the G20 summit in Johannesburg, Starmer said: “He needs to explain the comments, or alleged comments that were made, and he needs to do that as soon as possible. He hasn’t got a good track record in relation to this because Sarah Pochin, his MP, made some clearly racist comments and Nigel Farage has done absolutely nothing about it
UK politics: Reeves ‘not even sure what the popular path is’ on the budget – as it happened
The UK cannot continue to “muddle through” and must take “a different path” on the economy, the chancellor has said.Ahead of her second budget on 26 November, Rachel Reeves told the Times that the country could not continue on its current trajectory. But she admitted she was “not even sure any more what the popular path is” amid calls for a wealth tax from some politicians and heavy tax and spending cuts from others.In the interview published on Friday, Reeves said:I’m not even sure any more what the popular path is.There are lots of people who say cut taxes and the economy will grow, but what spending would they cut? Borrowing is too high, but you can’t cut it overnight
Reform UK’s former Wales leader jailed for taking bribes for pro-Russia speeches
Reform UK’s former leader in Wales Nathan Gill has been jailed for 10 and a half years for taking bribes to make statements in favour of Russia when he was an MEP.Gill, a key member of the Ukip and Brexit party groups led by Nigel Farage in the European parliament, had pleaded guilty to eight counts of bribery between 6 December 2018 and 18 July 2019.Police believe Gill received the equivalent of at least £30,000 and could have got even more from Oleg Voloshyn, a former Ukrainian MP and alleged Russian asset. He remains under investigation but is now believed to be in Moscow.Immediately after Gill was jailed, the defence minister Al Carns called on Farage’s party to launch a thorough investigation to guarantee that pro-Russia links were rooted out of Reform
Rachel Reeves sick of people ‘mansplaining’ how to be chancellor
Rachel Reeves has said she is sick of people “mansplaining” how to be chancellor to her as she prepares to deliver her budget next week.Reeves made the comments in an interview with the Times in which she spoke of the pressure of being the UK’s first female chancellor and the subject of constant political attacks.She said it motivated her “a bit” to show she was making the right decisions to those “boys who now write newspaper columns” or describe her as “Rachel from accounts”.“I recognise that I’ve got a target on me,” she said in the interview with Tom Baldwin, a journalist and former Labour communications adviser to Ed Miliband.“You can see that in the media; they’re going for me all the time
Lib Dems to force vote on creating new customs union with EU
The Liberal Democrats are forcing a vote in parliament on creating a new customs union to put pressure on Labour MPs to take a more pro-EU stance.Ed Davey’s party is writing to all Labour MPs urging them to back a new bill in favour of a customs union with the EU, believing this is the best way to boost growth and raise revenue, rather than tax rises.The bill, tabled by Al Pinkerton, the Lib Dem spokesperson on Europe, will be voted on by MPs in early December, two weeks after the budget. It is largely symbolic and not likely to pass because it does not have government support.However, the Lib Dems are hoping to demonstrate support among pro-EU MPs for the idea of a new customs union
Labour MPs urge Reeves to drop private finance plans for NHS buildings
Rachel Reeves has been urged by 40 Labour MPs to drop plans to fund NHS buildings with private finance initiatives (PFI) that would saddle the health service with debt.The Labour MPs, including Cat Eccles, Clive Lewis and Rebecca Long-Bailey, pressed the chancellor to commit to investment in the NHS without the use of private capital and warned that a return to the New Labour era of private funding for public projects would be damaging for trust in the government.“We are asking you to learn from the mistakes of the past. We must reject the notion that private finance can be used to build public services in a way that can be to the long-term benefit of the public,” they said in their letter. “We ask you to please drop any plans for new private finance in the NHS from the autumn budget and any future policy
Overseas-trained doctors leaving the UK in record numbers
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Councils in north of England and Midlands to get more funding in shake-up
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