News roundup--Asos, HMV, more

Asos has added augmented reality technology to its customer magazine. Users can now download the Aurasma mobile app to bring the catalogue images to life through interactive digital content called “auras”. In total there are 50 auras in the latest Asos magazine. Readers are also able to point their phones at product images within the catalogue and click to buy from the company’s mobile website. In April, Littlewoods announced it was using the technology in its bimonthly magazine.

Like-for-like retail sales at HMV declined 12.9 percent in the 17 weeks to 28th April. For the full year, total sales were down 19.4 percent. Despite this, HMV is confident of achieving pretax profit of £10 million for the 2012/13 financial year, significantly ahead of analyst forecasts, which predicted a £5 million loss.

The chairman of the John Lewis Partnership took home nearly £1 million last year, writes the Evening Standard.