Asos.

com is the UK¶s leading online fashion store for women and
men. Launched in 2000,the online retailer targets fashion conscious
16-34 year olds. On asos.com there are 9,000 products available at
any one time, with 450 new fashion items added every week. These
include women¶s fashion, menswear, accessories, jewellery and
beauty products. asos.com attracts 3.3 million unique shoppers
every month and has 1.8 million registered users.

Five years ago, asos.com had just 550 square metres of

warehouse space. Today, to meet growing demand, asos.com
now has 32,500 square metres
of warehouse space ± equivalent in area to nearly five football
pitches. In April 2005, asos.com employed 47 permanent staff.
By February 2008, it had 250 employees.
2009 Launched ASOS Life
Launched Little ASOS and Designer
2009 Store
2008 Launched ASOS Outlet
2007 Introduced ASOS own label for Men
2007 Launched ASOS Magazine
2006 First UK online store to launch catwalk
Buncefield Fuel Depot explosion closes
2005 business for 6 weeks
2005 Launched ASOS Beauty
2004 Introduced ASOS own label for Women
2004 Maiden profit
ASOS PLC Holdings was admitted to AIM
2001 on the London Stock Exchange
2000 ASOS launched
Asos, was founded in 2000 and
built on showing young
shoppers how to emulate the
designer looks of celebrity
maga ine favourites such as
Victoria Beckham, Lindsay
Lohan and Jennifer Lope for a
fraction of the cost.
The site still links looks to
faces. Customers can click on
their favourite celeb/wag/pop
star and view clothes that look
a bit like things they have been
pictured in.

ABOVE: Inspired from Sienna

Miller dress for $73
BELOW: Inspired from Kate Moss
white asymmetrical dress for £35
Asos.com is a public limited company (plc). This means that the business is
owned by shareholders and that its shares can be purchased by the
general public. Asos.com shares are traded on the Alternative
Investment Market (AIM), which is part of the London Stock Exchange.
Joining AIM has several advantages for a growing company such as
asos.com. AIM-listed
companies do not need to comply with the strict rules that must be followed
by businesses listed on the main London stock market. They do not need to
meet any si e threshold, either in terms of market capitalisation or the
numbers of shares that they issue. This means it is easier and cheaper to
obtain an AIM listing. It provides smaller companies with a chance to raise
capital through the sale of shares. This capital can be used to finance
growth.

The asos.com board consists of two non-executive directors and three

executive directors. Non-executive directors do not have day-to-day
operational responsibilities for the business. They are invited to join the
board because they bring experience and qualities that can guide the
strategic direction of the company.
 vhairman - Lord Waheed Alli

vhief Executive - Nick Robertson

Finance Director and vompany

Secretary - Nick Beighton

Non-Executive Director - Peter

Williams

International Director - Jon

Kamaluddin
Product and Trading Director -
Robert Bready

Non-Executive Director -
Karen Jones

Non-Executive Director - Mary Turner

 Sales increased by 90% year on
year for the 12 months to 31st March
2008. In April 2008, there was a daily
average of 220,000 unique visitors to
the asos.com website. The growth in
sales translates into profit. Group profit
is likely to be in excess of £7 million.

Four years ago the shares were changing hands at 5p. Today they
are nudging 282p, valuing the business at £206m and Robertson's
stake at £28m - not bad for a business with an annual turnover of
£80m.
David Jeary, an analyst at the broker Investec, expects the heady
growth rate to continue and has set a 12-month target price for the
stock at 355p.

asos.com has achieved rapid growth internally. It has not grown by acquiring
other
businesses. Instead, it has grown by increasing its customer base, number of
brands and
products available to buy at any one time. Moreover, it has grown rapidly without
incurring
the problems that this can cause for some businesses.
 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005
Income
statement £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000

Revenue 165,395 81,044 42,614 20,317 14,428

Cost of sales (93,696) (43,760) (24,488) (11,668) (7,949)

Gross profit 71,699 37,284 18,126 8,649 6,479

Operating
costs (57,764) (30,322) (15,262) (9,744) (5,411)

Goodwill
impairment ² ² (188) ² (228)

Insurance
proceeds (1) ² ² 570 2,439 ²
 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005
£'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000

`perating
profit/(loss) 13,935 6,962 3,246 1,344 840

Share of
post-tax
losses of
joint venture (78) ² ² ² ²

Finance
income 268 349 124 61 39

Profit
before
taxation 14,125 7,311 3,370 1,405 879

Taxation (4,116) (2,258) (951) 12 ²

Profit/(loss)
for the
financial
year 10,009 5,053 2,419 1,417 879
 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005
£'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000

Earnings
per
share

Basic 13.6p 6.9p 3.4p 2.0p 1.3p

Fully
diluted 12.8p 6.6p 3.3p 1.9p 1.2p

Balance
sheet

Cash at
bank 13,587 10,369 5,379 3,744 2,060

Net
assets 25,709 15,944 8,385 5,522 3,612
 MARKETING STRATEGIES

Asos has found a winning formula for its

proposition ³choice, presentation and
service for our customers´
± Hash Ladha (marketer)

The effort invested into the visual merchandising of the site gives it
a competitive advantage and, by necessity, makes it the company¶s
main and most effective marketing channel. The site¶s ³Outlet´
section, which includes brands such as Alexander McQueen and
Dolce & Gabbana at cut prices, displays every item of branded
clothing in close-up photo stills and catwalk fashion shots, just as on
the rest of the site.
Social networking has played its part in raising awareness ± in six
months Asos has become the second largest UK fan group for any
fashion retailer on Facebook, overtaking Topshop and Urban
Outfitters to come just behind H&M¶s 90,000 fans.
The single biggest investment made by the marketing department is
Asos¶s print magazine, which is sent to 500,000 active customers.
Showcasing other brands¶ products alongside its own, a team of seven is
dedicated to layering photos of fashion icons with editorial to create content
that competes with news-stand glossies.

The customers who receive their magazine spend more time on the
site, have a higher basket value, and take up the promotional
incentives that we offer, which drives higher conversion rates and
higher spend. Nevertheless, it is an expensive investment as not all of
the active customers who receive the maga ine remain active because of
it. Sending the print maga ine to all of them is a high-cost strategy, so in
the future they will be looking to send only to those customers who have
a higher propensity to spend. They also put a 24-page supplement in
magazines such as Glamour and vosmopolitan to attract new
customers.

The company also sends e-newsletters, which are ³weekly

campaigns´. A team of 10 is dedicated to crafting the two weekly
newsletters, ensuring they have relevance and pace in the manner of a
weekly maga ine, and four million e-mails are sent out each week to the
website¶s database of two million registered users.
Asos is careful that it does not bombard its customers and has a strategy
for dealing with those who have lapsed. They have three attempts over
six weeks to try to reactivate them. If this fails, they might try a discount
to entice them back. After that they would become a non-target, unless they
ran a separate reactivation programme.
As a small business in a cluttered marketplace, with competitors in both
offline and online retail, Asos is reluctant to reveal exact click-through rate
figures for its e-newsletters. But it overtook its biggest rival in terms of
website hits, fashion mogul Next, for the first time in February. It has
since been neck-and-neck, according to rankings by website Hitwise.co.uk,
which reports on the anonymous online usage and search behaviour of
eight million UK internet users.
Underpinning all of Asos¶s marketing channels is a sophisticated vRM
system from SmartFocus. Working with Asos¶s rich pool of customer
data, the software has produced some interesting insights into
spending behaviour. Men are more generous than women and are
more likely to include items for their wives or girlfriends in their
shopping baskets.
With 20,000 products live on the site at any time, and 800 new product
lines being added every week, it¶s crucial that a customer¶s marketing
message is personalised to include the kind of items they are most
likely to buy. The software has created five female and three male
customer profiles that identify a customer¶s propensity to spend,
their trigger points and whether they tend to shop at the weekend
or during the week.
With the varied spectrum of goods on sale, from a £5 bracelet to a
£1,000 designer handbag, Asos also ensures that its communications
only include items in the applicable spending bracket.
ãigh-quality service for customers is the third prong to asos` marketing
mantra. The customer care team is now available 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, closing only for one day at vhristmas.
Team members are required to reply to customer enquiries within an
hour and are judged by the speed and quality of their reply.

Asos is working on stepping up its delivery options and on a returns

service that collects an unwanted garment from the customer¶s
house. When snow was imminent earlier this year Asos sent e-mails
to customers warning them that it might delay their delivery. `nce it
did snow, an apology e-mail was sent offering a delivery refund and
10 per cent off next orders.

They don¶t hide things from their customers ± if they are offering free
delivery for a spend of £75 or more, my designers put both parts of the offer
in equal font and with equal emphasis, so the customer isn¶t led into
something only to be let down.
With the recent launch of the kidswear and new high-end designer ranges,
Asos plans to continue expanding its products.
asos.com has recognised that the conditions were right for an
online retail business in the fashion retail sector. The company has
used the Internet as the primary growth tool. It has tapped into the
rapidly expanding online retailing market. As research in 2007 by
the online retail consultancy Interactive Media in Retail Group
(IMRG) showed:
‡ total online spending in the UK reached £30.2 billion in 2006
‡ the number of UK online shoppers grew from 16 million in 2003 to
25 million in 2006,an increase of 56 per cent over four years
‡ Internet access grew by 45 per cent in the same period, with 42
million people having access in 2006 compared to just 29 million in
2003
‡ the number of broadband connections more than tripled in four
years, by 2006 there were more than 12.7 million UK broadband
connections.
asos.com targets its offer at a specific market
segment of young (16-34) fashion-conscious
consumers. This market segment now accounts
for 20% of the Internet shopping population in the
UK. According to the market research organisation
Mintel, women aged 20±24 are more likely than any
other segment to spend their money on clothing and
footwear. The average spend per head on clothing
increased by 76% in 2006 to £1,208.
asos.com offers an extensive and diverse range of
products for men and women. Its
departments cover:
‡ own brand clothing
‡ brands ± high-street and designer
‡ footwear
‡ accessories, for example, sunglasses
‡ jewellery
‡ swimwear.
‡ http://ragulan.wordpress.com/2009/04/24/
marketing-strategy-for-firms-in-the-
garment-industry/
‡ http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/
apr/18/retail.internet