ASOS (retailer)

ASOS plc (/ˈeɪsɒs/ AY-soss)[2] is a British online fashion and cosmetic retailer. The company was founded in 2000 in London, primarily aimed at young adults.[3] The website sells over 850 brands as well as its own range of clothing and accessories, and ships to all 196 countries from fulfilment centres in the UK, US and EU.[3]

ASOS plc
Public
Traded asLSE: ASC
ISINGB0030927254 
Industry
Founded3 June 2000 (2000-06-03)
FoundersNick Robertson
Andrew Regan
Quentin Griffiths
HeadquartersLondon, England, United Kingdom
Key people
Products
  • Clothes
  • Shoes
  • Accessories
  • Beauty
Revenue £2.573 billion (2019)[1]
£25 million (2019)[1]
Number of employees
4,000+ (2019)[1]
SubsidiariesASOS.com Limited
Websiteasos.com
asosplc.com
marketplace.asos.com

ASOS originally stood for AsSeenOnScreen[4] with the tagline "Buy what you see on film and TV"[5] because it exclusively sold imitations of clothing from those mediums (for example, Brad Pitt's red leather jacket from the 1999 movie Fight Club). However, it no longer has that meaning and is generally stylised as an uppercase acronym, although the company's logo represents it in lower case.

ASOS' headquarters are in Camden Town, at Greater London House with additional offices in Paris, New York, Berlin, and Birmingham. As of 2013, their main fulfilment centre is in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, where they employ 3,500 workers.[6][7] The customer care department is based in Leavesden, near Watford, in southwest Hertfordshire.[8]

History

2000–2004: Founding and listing

ASOS was established on 3 June 2000, by Nick Robertson,[6] Andrew Regan[9] and Quentin Griffiths. In 2001, ASOS was admitted to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) on the London Stock Exchange.[10] In 2003, ASOS shareholders agreed to change the names of AsSeenOnScreen Holdings PLC and AsSeenOnScreen Limited to ASOS plc and ASOS.com Limited. In 2004, the company reported a maiden profit, with sales almost doubling in its first half.[11] In 2004, ASOS introduced their own label for women's clothing.[11]

2005–2012: Development

In 2005, the Buncefield Fuel Depot explosion led to the closure of the business for six weeks and £5m of stock was lost.[12] In 2008, ASOS debuted kidswear on its site, however the branded market subsequently suffered declines at the expense of fast-growing own-label kidswear offers. In 2010, ASOS announced it would no longer offer kidswear, to concentrate on its core young adult fashion market.[13]

In the final quarter of 2010, ASOS launched three international online shops in France, Germany and the US. In September 2011, they launched three more sites in Australia, Italy and Spain.[14] In 2012, ASOS opened its first international office in Sydney, Australia, followed by an office in New York.[15] Later on, the company launched its first drama-game show series, called #DIGIDATING, starring AJ Odudu. It was billed as an Internet dating show with backstage drama.[16]

2013–present: Global expansion

In 2013, ASOS opened its first office outside the South East, in Birmingham.[17] Later in 2013, ASOS recalled belts contaminated with radioactive cobalt-60.[18] ASOS Russia and China were launched in the same year.[6] In 2014, a fire in their Barnsley warehouse caused them to stop taking orders for almost three days.[19][20] During the 2014 Formula One season, ASOS was a sponsor of the McLaren Formula One team.[21][22] In 2015, ASOS had over 4,000 employees and was the UK's largest independent online and fashion beauty retailer.[23]

In September 2016, an investigative report from Buzzfeed News alleged poor working conditions at ASOS' warehouse. However, company spokespersons contended that the isolated complaints reported in the Buzzfeed article were not reflective of the general working conditions there.[24][25]

In April 2019, ASOS informed its clients through email that the company is looking into ways of changing its easy returns policy, after research showed customers were manipulating the easy return process. The company also admitted that the previous return policy was environmentally costly.[26]

In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, ASOS was accused by some staff and workers unions of "playing Russian roulette with people’s lives" by failing to adequately enforce preventative measures in their Grimethorpe, Barnsley site.[27][28][29] It was claimed that the warehouse staff could not safely operate whilst maintaining social distancing, that the staff felt unsafe and that ASOS's product was not actually essential, thus not meeting the UK Government's recommendation that only essential workplaces remain open.[30] The company refuted these claims, claiming they had sufficiently changed their operation to comply, Barnsley Council also inspected the site and found that the company was complying.[31]

Digital marketing

In November 2009, ASOS claimed a ratio of one Twitter follower to eight Facebook fans to 100 active e-mail subscribers. Their 2008 report pointed out that nearly 10% of sales could be directly attributed to email marketing.[32]

In 2017 ASOS launched a campaign intended to take full advantage of the 'Instagram Stories' feature, encouraging users to upload videos of purchased ASOS products. 3 million people interacted with the video in the UK.[33] ASOS uses the #AsSeenOnMe hashtag and any use of the hashtag adds the photos to an ASOS online database.[34]

As of March 2018, a mobile app allows users to upload images of clothing they like in order to receive suggestions of matching or similar items that the company stocks. ASOS claims that in the UK, 58% of purchases happen on mobile devices.[35]

gollark: I've been working to reduce mod count.
gollark: ```computercraftplethora-peripheralstis-3dopencomputersvanillafixapplied-energistics-2botaniaautoreglibbitcoincofh-corecofh-worldredstone-fluxthermal-innovationthermal-foundationthermal-dynamicsthermal-expansionquarkpsibaublescodechicken-libworldeditrandom-psideasimmersive-engineeringcapability-adaptercompact-machinesnuclearcraftmekanismrftools-powerrftoolsmcjtylibgregtech-ceskyblocksfoamfixbetterfpstinkers-constructmantlejeispeed-based-fall-damageftb-libftb-utilitiesactually-additionscrafttweakerbetter-builders-wandsspatial-server-modrftools-dimensionsxaeros-minimaphwylactm```
gollark: I'll get the modlist, hold on.
gollark: <@167658041028640768> No, this is entirely custom.
gollark: 1. Less Google tracking2. Google needs some competition to stop them defining web standards unilaterally3. Firefox does not eat as much RAM

See also

References
  1. "ASOS PLC ORD 3.5P (ASC.L) Income Statement - Yahoo Finance". finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  2. Wang, Connie; Marinelli, Gina (19 March 2012). "29 Of Fashion's Biggest Mysteries, Solved!". Refinery29. Archived from the original on 7 April 2012. Retrieved 7 April 2012.
  3. "About ASOS". ASOS.com. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
  4. "From AsSeenOnScreen the world's number one fashion destination for 20-somethings". ASOS.com. Archived from the original on 29 May 2015. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
  5. "Wayback Machine entry for AsSeenOnScreen.com captured 18 May 2001". Internet Archive. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  6. Young, Vicki M. (30 October 2013). "WWD CEO Summit: Asos.com's Nick Robertson Looks to the Future". WWD. Retrieved 1 November 2013.
  7. ASOS sees significant growth Archived 29 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine OneHydra
  8. "ASOS office building fit for 'Millennial' robotic generation wins office awards". Watford Observer. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  9. Fildes, Nic. "City puts on its best to greet Asos successor". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  10. Richard Fletcher (6 June 2014). "Darling of the dotcoms was a born survivor". The Times. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  11. "The timeline of ASOS.com – Telegraph". Telegraph. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  12. Card, Jon. "Growing Business Success Stories – ASOS". Growing Business. Archived from the original on 27 December 2010. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 5 August 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. "ASOS profits jump 41pc on international expansion". The Daily Telegraph. London. 2 June 2011.
  15. Kollewe, Julia (5 June 2014). "Asos timeline: from tiny startup to dressing Michelle Obama". The Guardian.
  16. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 1 March 2016. Retrieved 11 February 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. Enda Mullen (1 April 2013). "Fashion chain ASOS opens up in Birmingham". Birmingham Post. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  18. Simon Neville (27 May 2013). "Asos pulls belts in radioactive scare". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
  19. Scott Campbell (21 June 2014). "ASOS fashion warehouse "badly damaged" in fire". The Telegraph. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
  20. "ASOS status monitoring". Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  21. "ASOS join McLaren sponsors for Australian GP". Auto Race Sponsor. Archived from the original on 7 October 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2014.
  22. "The History of ASOS". The Fact Shop. 29 September 2016. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  23. "ASOS". Business of Fashion. Archived from the original on 21 August 2015. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
  24. Spary, Sara; Silver, Laura (16 September 2016). "The Real Cost of Asos's Fast Fashion". Buzzfeed. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
  25. Butler, Sarah (4 April 2017). "Asos chief says warehouse conditions are 'great' despite complaints". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  26. Jennings, Rebecca (11 April 2019). "Returning online purchases is getting harder. That's a good thing". Vox. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  27. Butler, Sarah (30 March 2020). "'Cradle of disease': Asos warehouse staff reveal coronavirus fears". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  28. "Coronavirus: Calls to protect 'vital' warehouse workers". BBC. 2 April 2020. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  29. Saad, Laith (2 May 2020). "'This Isn't Essential': Asos Workers Fight for Safety During Coronavirus". Archived from the original on 3 May 2020. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  30. "ASOS are 'playing Russian roulette with people's lives' as they refuse to enforce social distancing in packed warehouses amid the Coronavirus crisis". GMB. 28 March 2020. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  31. Olulode, Celestina (1 April 2020). "Coronavirus: ASOS denies claims staff are unsafe at work during outbreak". BBC. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  32. Chaffey, Dave (2010). "Applying organisational capability models to assess the maturity of digital-marketing governance". Journal of Marketing Management. 26:3–4 (3–4): 187–196. doi:10.1080/02672571003612192.
  33. "Great Work: ASOS on Instagram Stories". Creative Review. 18 December 2017.
  34. Hobbs, Thomas (20 March 2017). "Asos on why digital must be a balance between mass reach and targeting". Marketing Week.
  35. Milnes, Hilary (14 August 2017). "How Asos gets 58 percent of customers to buy on mobile". Digiday.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.