Candidate Number: 35446Course Code: N1079

1. Executive Summary

This report provides an analysis and evaluation of the current and prospective

position of Asos plc. within the online retail market. Additional attention is given to

current economic environment and its influence on the online retail market.

Analytical part of report covers industry structure analysis, application of Porter’s five

forces model, value chain and generic strategies and the competitive advantage

obtained from those. The report finds that Asos’s competitive advantage lies in doing

the same things in a different way than its rivals. Also online fashion retail, has been

and will be on rise, with the most important channels being online stores, mobile

phones and social networking. By analysing data and company’s facts, this report

comes up with relevant recommendations for Asos; expansion to China and other big

strategic markets, focusing on the value segment and menswear, as in five years

those are where the growth opportunities will be, building up new distribution

channels and purchase points.

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Candidate Number: 35446Course Code: N1079

2. INTRODUCTION

2.1. INDUSTRY ANALYSIS

2000 was a turning point for retail channels. Before small, overvalued

companies, that generally make losses, were present in the online retailing

(i.e. boo.com). Most of those companies collapsed in 2000, and around 2001

the second phase of “e-tail” started.

Estimated world total apparel market at retail prices was US$680bn for 2000

and in 2007 grew to US$769bn. The shares of retail channels in 2000 and

2007 are as follows respectively; traditional retail shops by 69.8%, then down

to 65.0%, catalogues on the internet 0.1%, then up to 5.2%, social networking

by almost zero percentage, then up to 2.0% (Newberry, 2010)

In 2008, quotas were eliminated at EU’s clothing trade. This was also a

turning point for the evolution of global clothing market. China and some

other low labor cost countries became major suppliers in the industry, thus

costs were reduced. In spite of this development, financial crisis, that hit the

global markets in the same year, brought forth decrease in demand for all

kinds of products, including clothing. (Curran, 2009)

As response to the 2008 financial crisis’ outcomes, the mass market first tried

to lower the price points and later decided it’s best to introdce budget

merchandise.Since then the consumers become more knowledgeable, fickle

and demanding.(Newberry, 2010) Consumers shifted to online retailers to

spend their money, mostly because of the bargain offering fame of theirs.

(Collins, 2008)

UK retail market is in mature state; on the other hand, online retail market is a

young one that shows dramatic growth, since its introduction between 1998

and 2002. (Times 100, 2009) The same can be said for the global markets as

well.

2.2. ASOS plc.

When Asos started, it was a different business model; the company then

called “as seen on screen” and was focusing on giving informations about the

products seen in tv shows and films, hoping to get paid by the sellers of the

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featured items. Seeing that the idea didnt worked they changed the business

model and website name to ASOS betwen 2001 and 2002.(Anonymous,

2007)

(http://asos.annualreport2010.com/Doc/pdf/AnnualReport.pdf)

Asos.com is a pure play online retailer in the mass market,based in London.

Its product range constitues of own brands, national and international brands

and contemporary designer brands.It has a ‘fahion bargain’ reputation, which

positions the company in the market. (Newberry, 2010) The company took

over the market leadership in the UK online retail industry from Next in 2010.

(Datamonitor, 2011)

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Women's wear, men's wear, children’ wear, footwear, accessories, jewelry

and beauty products are offered at the website, in which more than 36,000

products can be found and approximately 1,300 new product lines are being

introduced each week.

(http://asos.annualreport2010.com/Doc/pdf/AnnualReport.pdf)

In 2008 ASOS outlet, in 2004 asos women, in 2007 asos men,in 2009 little

asos, in 2010 Marketplace,US, Germany and France websites, 2011 Fashion

Finder and Facebook store were introduced .(Datamonitor, 2011)

3. COMPETITTIVE ADVANTAGE

Porter (1980, p. 3) argues “Competitive advantage grows fundamentally out of

value a firm is able to create for its buyers that exceeds the firm’s cost of

creating it.” A company could gain competitive advantage either by doing

different things than its competitors, or by doing things differently than its

competitors. (O’Shannassy, 2008)

3.1. E-VALUE CHAIN

In the light of Nicholls and Watson’s (2005) research, the e-value chain of

Asos will investigated under these strategic headings; firm infrastructure,

marketing and sales, logistics and fulfilment. In line with Porter’s (2001) e-

value chain analysis, some supporting and primary activities are combined

due to the nature of online retailing business. HRM, technology development,

operations and service delivery are included in “Firm infrastructure”. Inbound

and outbound logistics are examined under “logistics and fulfilment”.

“marketing and sales” goes in line with Porter’s value chain.( Nicholls,

A.,Watson, A., 2005)

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3.1.1. FIRM INFRASTRUCTURE

Asos is a public limited company (plc), its shares are open to the public on the

Alternative Investment Market (AIM). After joining the AIM in 2001, Asos

made its first profit in 2004. The share price being 5p at the beginnings rose to

350p in August 2008. (Lewis, 2008) In 2010, Asos AIM shares reached 1287p

by making it the Winning AIM Company of the Year. (Louth, 2010) As Nick

Robertson (founder and CEO) mentions, to support the growth of Asos, the

company prefers investing in building infrastructure. (Clews, 2009) Being in

the AIM enables Asos to raise capital, thus it makes it financially easier to

grow. Growth is linked with operational volume increase, and this brings about

economies of scale, which Asos made use of to reduce its costs.

Asos is a great example for organic growth. This is one of the KSFs. They

made use of economies of scale, have found new markets, managed to

increase customer base even by exceeding over the target age group.

(TIMES100, 2007) If a company grows rapidly internally, it is expected to have

some problems related to growth, in terms of distribution, stock, supply, staff

etc., Asos did not experienced any of these.(Times 100, 2007)

Asos’ financial resources enables the company to expand into new markets,

the US, France and Germany. Recent years’ huge financial growth also

strenghtens the company’s domestic operations.(Datamonitor, 2011)

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(http://asos.annualreport2010.com/Doc/pdf/AnnualReport.pdf)

Asos brand has ‘value, high street and premium lines’ and own label products

sales make the half of the total sales. (Barrett, 2011) With the wide product

portfolio Asos aims to respond to the needs of different ages groups, as well

as its core target market 16-34 year olds.(Datamonitor, 2011)

The product life cycle is maybe the most important issue to address in a

fashion business. Another KSF is Asos’s management of the product life cycle

effectively. According to the Boston Matrix model own label dresses and t-

shirts are Asos’s cash cows. Asos is quite fast in managing dogs, since its

outlet section gets renewed frequently. In order to manage the question

Marks, offering discounts by newsletter, Asos Magazine and ‘new in section’

help.(Times 100, 2009) The season differences between the North and South

hemispheres and the customers, taking a trip to hotter climates in winter time

prolongs the life cycle of Asos products. As a result of selling winter and

summer apparel at the same time Asos maximises its revenues.

In September 2010 Asos launched the US version of its website, prices in

dollars, products shipping from the London warehouse with a logistics facility

in Atlanta for returns. (Datamonitor, 2011)

Marketplace has been launched to enable customers to sell to the others and

to buy from each other. At the same time independent designer and retailers

can also benefit, by opening up a store. Marketplace is aiming to be a

competitor of E-bay, and Asos takes 10-15% of the products sold. Asos

Magazine was launched in 2007 to increase sales and the web traffic; it also

helped asos.com to be a fashion issues authority. With the launch of the

Fashion Finder, Asos targets to strengthen its position as a fashion

destination and authority.(Anonymous, 2008) Fashionfinder is aiming to be a

competitor of Polyvore and Shopstyle.(Anonymous, 2011)(Barrett, 2011)

Another KSF is the company’s investment in people and technology.

(TIMES100) Asos has 700 employees, of whom 120 work in IT and 16 work

as designers. Young, trendy females accounts for the majority of Asos’s staff.

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Since they also match the company’s target customer segment, they are

efficient in knowing the customer requirements and meeting them. (Barrett,

2011) Asos gives customer care service from its Facebook and Twitter

accounts in addition to the direct e-mails. The new Asos Facebook store

makes is possible for the customers to make a purchase without leaving it.

(McEleny, 2009) Asos’s organizational culture contributes to gaining

competitive advantage. The company creates a welcoming work atmosphere

by “flexitime” working hours, competitive salaries, benefits like staff discount,

Christmas contests. The staff is allowed to use Facebook and twitter during

work hours, to keep up with what’s going on in the fashion and entertainment

world for the sake of Asos. (Anonymous, 2009) Asos’s paid search activities

has been given to İcrossing so that the company’s marketing team can focus

on other channels. (Anonymous, 2010) The highly efficient website also

contributes to Asos’ success. (TIMES100, 2007)

3.1.2. MARKETING AND SALES

(http://asos.annualreport2010.com/Doc/pdf/AnnualReport.pdf

Asos frequently make collaborations with designer brands. It’s a win-win for

everyone, since young labels and ASOS get the PR and brand awareness

they want, and the designs become affordable for Asos customers. (LCF,

2009) Asos’s collection designed by LCF students was a great success, as

well as the collaboration with Patricia Field.(Anonymous, 2007)

One of the KFSs of Asos is the targeting the right consumer segment in terms

of age, 18-24 year olds does not have mortgages and big debts to pay

(Jones, 2009) Asos’s core target customer group has a tendency to spend

more on clothing and footwear, than the rest of the age groups.( Times 100,

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2007) Those over 35 makes over 20% of Asos’s customer base.( Times 100,

2009)

Asos launched asosreviews.com, in which customers’ negative or positive

comments are gathered from Twitter and Youtube, to emphasize being open

and transparent. (McEleny, 2009) Asos Tee-V was launched with HP to

support London fashion week, this helped to strengthen the ties with the

designers and customers.(Lovett, 2010)

Another KSF of Asos is that the company did spend relatively small amount

on advertising and they chose offline advertising, although it’s an online

business. Asos placed editorial context into magazines like Grazia and found

out that even just mentioning the website address, drove the sales faster than

traditional paid advertising.(Anonymous, 2007) Asos community site Asos life

turned out to be very profitable since it leads the users to Asos website and

strengthens brand loyalty.(McEleny, 2009)

Asos’s high margins let the company to offer free shipping in the UK. Asos’s

free returns option, which is now available in US, Germany, France, also

contributed to the company success.(Barrett, 2011)To Mr. Robertson ‘free

delivery and returns option’ is Asos’s biggest marketing weapon, with the

happy customers and word-of-mouth it created, it brings more value to Asos

than any huge spending on marketing can bring. (Anonymous, 2009) Asos is

online fashion retail leader in Australia and Ireland, and second contender in

Denmark.(Datamonitor, 2011)

Asos has done brand awareness increasing marketing activities. Sponsorship

to next top model on Living TV, Diet Coke partnership that reached on being

42 million of cans. From November 2009 to March 2010, Asos brand

recognition increased from 46% to 62%. Behind Galmour, Asos magazine is

the second biggest fashion magazine in the UK, with 450,000 circulation and

it is considered the key marketing tool.In 2006 Asos was the first online

fashion retailer in launching its own produced catwalk for its apparel.

(Datamonitor, 2011)

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3.1.3. LOGISTICS AND FULLFILMENT

Asos has a strong distribution network, which is another KSF (Cross, A.,

Fosh, J., 2009)

High demand to Asos products leaded to lack of capacity in the warehouses,

in 2004 Asos had to issue a profit warning; another warning came after the

Buncefield depot explosion in 2005. After the incident Asos made a deal with

the third party logistics provider Unipart. It became a success and cost per

unit has nearly halved (Pryce, S., Jinks, D., 2007) Mr.Robertson mentions

about the importance of logistics to a company by recalling, Amazon turning

away from its mistake of spending millions on TV ads, and investing in getting

things right at logistics (Anonymous, 2009)

Asos increased the number of its carrier from two to four, this increased the

number of delivery options for the customers.(MetaPack, 2010) There is the

next day delivery and standard delivery(2-3 days) options. 85% of the orders

are retractable from the asos web site.

ASOS received the Best Customer Experience award from IMRG eCommerce

Awards, in December 2009.(Datamonitor, 2011) Outside the UK Asos has

delivery to 194 countries. In September 2011, Asos will open a new

warehouse with a capacity of £600 million sales. (Datamonitor, 2011)

Asos Premier is annual service which allows you to have free next day

delivery and free returns pick-up on all of the orders done by a customer in 12

months period, £24.95. There is returns pick-up for £2.95 charged by each

service. The company is still in talks with leading retail brands in the UK about

a new delivery option to pick up orders at points other than customers’ office

or home. (Datamonitor, 2011)

3.2. PORTER’S FIVE FORCES MODEL

Analysis of the industry structure helps a company in strategic positioning.

Not all of Porter’s five forces have a strong influence on an industry at the

same time.

The most influencers affect profitability and strategy formulation. (Porter,

2008)

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3.2.1. Competitive Rivalry

There are many big rivals like New Look, Next, Amazon, eBay,M&S Group,

River Island, Findel plc, N Brown Group plc, Topshop, J.P. Boden & Co. Most

of these companies ship to worldwide addresses. International companies

Zara and H&M are important rivals of Asos, in terms of fashionability and they

have recently entered the European online retail sector. Because the online

retail industry is highly competitive and with significant new comers, Asos’s

market share and profitability could decrease. (Datamonitor,2011) Some of

the established market leaders in the US online retail are

Revolveclothing.com, Shopbop.com and 80spurple.com.(Datamonitor,2011)

In order to rival the well-known discounters like TK Maxx, Asos Outlet was

launched.(Times 100, 2009)

3.2.2. The Threat of New Entrants

Firms like Asos that acquires a lot of profit quickly attracts new entrants in to

the market. Although they lack the infrastutcture of the market leader

companies, they still can be a pressure factor. (Parthasarathy, 2010) Even

though there might not be actual new entrants, but the realization probability

of the new entrants influence profitability.(Porter, 2008)

3.2.3. The Threat of Substitutes

Threat of substitute products is nearly non-existent.

3.2.4. The Bargaining Power of Suppliers

It is relatively low, since there are many low labour countries competing with

each other. As a result of Asos’s international expansion, the company will

gain advantage of a bargaining power with it suppliers. Consequently any

possible price rise on the Asos brand products in 2011 will be relatively low.

(Datamonitor, 2011)

3.2.5. The Bargaining Power of Buyers

The bargaining power of buyers is high in the online fashion industry because

it is a lot easier for customers to search for the best prices online, compared

to the traditional retail industry.

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3.3. PORTER’S GENERIC STRATEGIES

According to Porter (1985) having a clear generic position and achieving

competitive advantage make it possible for a firm to reach its strategic and

financial targets.(O’Shannassy, 2008)

Asos has a broad focus scope and adopts a cost leadership strategy. (Porter,

2008) The downturn of this strategy is having lower customer loyalty and

being known for low quality products. The latter issue has been managed by

Asos by maintaining economies of scale, the former is efficiently managed by

marketing activities.

4. PESTE ANALYSIS

4.1. POLITICAL: In most of the countries government applies sales taxes to

apparel and this has an adverse affect on the margins. (Newberry, 2010) In

january 2011 VAT is increased to 20% this will adversely affect the retail

industry’s volumes.(Datamonitor, 2011)

On the other hand there is no tax on children apparel (HM, 2010) Public

sector jobs will be cut to reduce the government’ spending, consequently

unemployment rates will go up. (Datamonitor, 2011) Labour costs are going

up in the UK; this will have an effect on the retail industry margins.

(Datamonitor, 2011)

4.2. ECONOMIC: Because of the job cuts, low wage growth and tighter lending,

consumer confidence was still negatively affected in 2010. In spite of this,

retail growth in December 2010 was positive. (Newberry, 2010) In 2011 the

UK economy is expected to grow at a low rate of 1.9% according to

December 2010 informations.November 2010 unemployment rate was 7.9%,

and for the age group 16-24 was 20.3%, both being very high. As the

unemployment rates show a pessimistic figure, buying power of consumers

may have a downfall. It is likely to be expected that non-food retail will

downsize because of this economic atmosphere.Rise of inflation levels will put

a rise on the prices. (Datamonitor, 2011)

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4.3. TECHNOLOGICAL: The company who is fast in adopting new technologies

will be more likely one step ahead of the rivals. In the online fashion retail

industry, Asos is one of the first companies in mobile phone channels and the

first in Facebook store channel.

4.4. SOCIAL: Celebrities and their lifestyle has become a raising interest in UK

as well as in the world. When Asos started in 2001, it made copies of the

outfits worn by the celebrities, and still they are selling products “in the style”

of celebrities. (Killgren, 2007)

4.5. ENVIROMENTAL: Mr. Robertson states that on the rainy weekends in the

UK, Asos sales had gone up, since buyers preferred to stay indoors and

spend time online.( Killgren, 2007) It is also known that sunny weather makes

people happy and can lead to shopping for summer clothes.

5.RECOMMENDATIONS

According to 2016 forecasts (Newberry, 2010), markets, online stores, mobile

phones and social networking websites will be the most favoured retail channels.

Asos already uses the latter three channels, in order to make use of these and

growth opportunities efficiently, the following recommendations are given.

Ansoff’s market development strategy should further be applied by Asos. 50% of

world internet traffic is hold by the US and China, and the UK only accounts for 3%.

China could be the Asos’s fifth market, since it’s a big strategic market, and

geographically could help Asos to obtain a big market share in Asia. Once China

operations could reach a certain level, Asos could go into Japan and Korea, the

former being known for fashionable youth, and the latter’s online shopping from

international retailers shows a huge growth. (Jin, B., Moon, H., 2006) Achieving

success in Asia could help Asos to reach its £1 billion sales target, over the next five

years.(Barrett, 2011) Burgeoning markets like India and Russia, whose value

segments show huge growth, could be next ones to target.( Baker, 2006)

Asos is thinking of making US dispatches from there, when the US sales volume will

make it a necessity. (Datamonitor, 2011) This can also be made possible for

Germany, France and for the upcoming new markets. In the new markets,

collaborations with regional bloggers could help Asos gain brand awareness and

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market share. Since bloggers are extremely influencing among youth in today’s

internet world and they seem to be getting more and more powerful in terms of

shaping consumer trends and behaviour.(Anoymous, 2010) This is also in line with

Asos’s ‘spending less on advertising, more on infrastructure’ philosophy.

According to the clothing retail global forecasts, by 2016 there will be polarisations in

the industry. Because of this polarisation mass market will downsize and value

segment will grow. Most important market and channel for value segment will be the

developed world and internet, respectively. (Newberry, 2010) According to forecasts

the same applies to the UK online mass-market and online value segment.

(Newberry, 2010) The demand for men’s fashion products are increasing in the UK,

as well as India and china, with a market growth rate of 25-35%.(Datamonitor, 2011)

Therefore, in terms of market segmentation, Asos should further focus on value and

men’s products, drive growth from of it globally. Ansoff’s product development

strategy should be applied to Asos own brand menswear, and ‘value, high street,

premium’ lines should be added to it.

In terms of resources and capabilities, these website reccommendations could help

Asos; quick look, zoom in the same window, build the look recommendations, online

chat with a customer care assistant, customer reviews of the products. Because

these are what customers value and Asos lacks. (Seock Y, Norton, MJT, 2007)

Asos accepts Sterling, Euros, Dollars, all the Scandinavian currencies. (Collins, J.

2008) On the other hand Revolveclothing.com, which is one of the top online retailers

in the US, has Turkish prices on its website. Asos could also adopt this strategy, and

every year in the top 10 of its markets, at least, regional currencies could be set,

even if the dispatches will be still made from the UK.

Ansoff’s market penetration strategy should be used, since Asos is already thinking

of including some new international brands to its product base in the upcoming

seasons. (Datamonitor, 2011) Asos could launch a new system to include

international brands to its product range. Starting from the biggest customer market,

the company can introduce one of that country’s successful brand to global shoppers

of Asos. In five years time 50 new international brands, each being from a different

country can be included to Asos product range, as long as the dispatches are done

from those countries. Asos could establish an internal dispatch team based on the

related brand’s homeland warehouse.

In terms of innovation, the company could build Asos store computers, similar to

store navigation ones, to the UK shopping centres. Also in shopping streets of cities,

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Asos could put those computers, in the appearance of ATMs. In order to compete

with the traditional retail rivals, %5 discount could be applied to the purchase made

from those computers. In order to prevent abuse, the discount could only be done to

maximum of e.g. 300$ in a month. Logistics and handling returns are generally

financial burdens to online retailers. Asos’s gross margin is negatively influenced by

free shipping it offers in the UK. Reducing the volume of free failed home delivery will

be more than good for the business. For collecting orders and returning unwanted

items, Asos can establish kiosks and desks in some central locations of cities and in

big shopping centres in the UK. (Schultes, 2011)

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Strategic growth in the fashion retail industry (2007) The Times 100 [online] Available at:http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/downloads/asos/asos_13_full.pdf [Accessed 2 May 2011]

Strategic growth in the fashion retail industry (2007) The Times 100 [online] Available at:http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/studies/view-summary--strategic-growth-in-the-fashion-retail-industry--134-325.php#ixzz1LfTe2tay [Accessed 2 May 2011]

The product life cycle and online fashion (2009) The Times 100 [online] Available at: http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/downloads/asos/asos_14_full.pdf [Accessed 2 May 2011]

Graphs taken from: http://asos.annualreport2010.com/Doc/pdf/AnnualReport.pdf [accessed on: 5 May 2011]

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