International fashion tastes are reportedly "converging," according to Next, as tech platforms introduce customers to global trends. This has increased the retailer's sales abroad and helped it reach annual profits of £1 billion for the first time.

The clothes and homewares retailer predicted that its yearly earnings would reach £995 million, £15 million more than projected, as a result of international sales rising 23% in the six months leading up to July, offsetting a nearly 1% fall in UK sales of Next-branded apparel.

Improved international delivery networks and the "global reach" of tech platforms like Netflix, YouTube, and TikTok, according to the company, are encouraging "consumers to try clothes from other countries, and retailers to adapt their ranges that cater for overseas tastes" and "exposing people to international fashion trends in a way they never have been before."“It appears that international tastes in clothing are converging more rapidly. This convergence is not uniform and is more pronounced in some territories than others,” the retailer said, adding that there remains a “marked difference between different cultures and climates”.

Simon Wolfson, the chief executive of Next, said the business was “at the start of a new phase” with more than half of its sales and profits now online and rapid growth in sales of non-Next brands, some of which the group now owns.

Non-Next brands now account for 17% of overseas sales and the group said it had been experimenting with expanding wholly owned labels including Cath Kidston, after it bought the brand name out of administration last year, and Love & Roses.

The group has signed a partnership deal in India with the local operator Myntra to develop online and retail stores and will expand a deal with the US department store chain Nordstrum, where it is now selling childrenswear, and also expects to find similar partners in Japan, China and Australia.

Next also plans to improve the way it works with shipment hubs in the Middle East and Europe to help better serve shoppers in those territories.

The plans were announced as Next revealed that full-price sales rose 4.4% in the six-month period, boosting total group sales by 8% and pre-tax profit by 7.2% to £452m.

Next said that full price sales over the six weeks after that period had “materially exceeded our expectations” and were up 6.9% as better weather helped boost trade.

Sales are now predicted to increase by 3.7% in the second half of the year, up from 2.5% previously.

Should Next achieve £1 billion in profits for the first time, it would become one of the few UK retailers to accomplish so, along with Tesco and Marks & Spencer from a bygone period. The company increased its profit forecast, sending Next's stock up 5.5% to a record high of £109.10.