Britain's JD Sports launches AI commerce in key US market

LONDON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - British sportswear retailer JD Sports Fashion said on Monday customers in the United ​States, its largest market, will be able to ‌use AI platforms to search for and purchase its products.

In the U.S., ‌the group trades from over 2,500 stores across the JD, DTLR, Shoe Palace and Hibbett brands and also trades online. It makes over 40% of its global sales in the ⁠U.S.

Starting with Microsoft's Copilot ‌and later extending to Google's Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT, customers in the U.S. will be ‍able to find and buy sports footwear, apparel and accessories from JD using the AI platforms.

JD said it has partnered with commercetools, ​a digital commerce platform provider, and financial infrastructure firm ‌Stripe to provide the service which connects AI-driven searches to secure checkout and payments.

"Today’s announcement is an important step into the next era of online shopping and positions JD to be ahead of the curve as the global ⁠retail industry embraces AI," said Jetan ​Chowk, JD's chief technology & transformation officer.

JD ​is scheduled to issue a trading update for the Christmas quarter on January 21.

In November, it ‍forecast annual profit ⁠at the lower end of then market expectations, saying it was mindful of weak economic and consumer ⁠indicators in its key countries.

Shares in JD were up 1.2%, paring losses ‌over the last year to 11.8%.

(Reporting by James ‌Davey; editing by William James)