Marks & Spencer launches personal stylist platform 'Tuesday'

High street department store Marks & Spencer has launched a new project through its digital innovation center Venture Lab to help boost its slipping fashion sales. Named 'Tuesday,' the standalone website offers users free online styling advice from M&S internal stylists.

One of Venture Lab's first projects, 'Tuesday' lets M&S stylist to offer clothing advice based on the customer body shape, style and season. The new site currently has 1,200 users and has reported 200 percent monthly growth, according to Marketing Week. Hemal Kuntawala, head of products and business models, explained the division was initially crated to help find solutions to make M&S shopping experience "more joined up" both in-store as well as online. "We exist to think outside the box when it comes to offering consumers instant gratification," he said.

"It is rare that a retailer has or offers an internal team of engineers the luxury of creative freedom and a lot of what we work on is inspired from outside the business. It could be learnings from psychologists or fashion designers, our job is to connect the dots and make it work for M&S." Kuntawala added that the website may soon be rolled out to an app form thanks to its success. The website launch comes not long after the high street department store reported another decline in its apparel. M&S witnessed clothing sales and general merchandise drop 0.4 percent in the three months to June 13.