ASOS PLC in the year 2016 was one of the most leading online shopping specialists that were generating sales of about ВЈ1.15 billion up from ВЈ340 million five years before. This is an online shop that focused on young people that were aged 16-25. It is a company that is known for its ability to offer around 80,000 items on the website that they had created. This shows that the things were more than any other that could be provided by the other largest stores that existed by then. The company is based in the United Kingdom and it shipped its products to 240 countries and territories.
The international sales represented more than 50 per cent of the total revenues that were earned by the company. The company is looking forward to being the number one fashion destination where most of the clients will be running to get their commodities. This particular assignment may be challenging for the company to achieve since after the new CEO took over in September 2015 the company has been facing challenges. ASOS is known to being large by online standards while there are traditional fashion retailers that are busy building their online sale capabilities while on the other hand, Amazon is busy expanding its apparel offering.
The company is facing challenges for the fact that various competitors are in the market and they want to achieve the goal of reaching the next level. According to the new CEO, the company needs to improve its execution so that they can recapture the historical success that they had earlier on for they already know what the right strategy is. The founders of the company came about with the idea of selling and advertising online for there is a culture that people have where they believe in the attires and the fashion that is on television. The company was sure that they have to invite people in all the way that is possible for them to adapt to buying their products online.
According to what the co-founders of this company expected, they were amazed that their items were more than 200. The company was all about aspirational dressing and shopping for people to have fun. This is the reason as to why the company was keeping the price down and focused on the quality. Quality is essential for it to can attract many customers in a way that they will buy the product and they will keep coming for more with time. This is a company that carried commercially available items rather than having specific units that were used on screen. ASOS was created for the company to bring about an exciting market.
The company raised about one million in private funding, and they had the hopes that they will increase nearly five million pounds to 10 million pounds that were purposely meant to fund the expansion of its operations all over Europe. With the rise of dotcom, it became difficult for the company to raise the funds that they expected. For them to fund their growth, they had to float the London market for the small firms where they were able to raise 2.8 million pounds. To achieve their mission, they decided to focus on focus for this is what sold well than home accessories. Penn came up with the idea for he got the inspiration from celebrities such as Madonna. Some of these brands had been won by the celebrities while there are others that were in the same style and they were not necessarily the identical copies that came from the stars wardrobes.
The environmental analysis
The company was facing many challenges particularly the challenge of competitors. Most of the online services had emerged, and they were selling almost the same products as those of ASOS.com. ASOS became successful for they provided quality products for the clients and the price was affordable. The company trialled an interactive TV in the year 2001 where the primary goal was for the viewer’s to click through the show and by the items that they had seen in the program. This turned out to be positive for the web sales proliferated, and all the focus remained on web sales. The total sales increased from 49 per cent to 1.2 million pounds in the first half period of the year 2002.
The effect took place in that the company reached a cash break in May 2002. The consequence of this brought about ASOS piloting its TV channel. This made it easy for most of the customers since they were able to access the online services and make a purchase online or by using the telephone. The initiative dropped since the company was trying to struggle with the high demands that were generated by the website at the end of the year holiday shopping period. The group aimed at expanding internet sales in the year 2003. This could lead to the navigation of sales by the consumers for they are provided with a wide range of product categories, price points, designers and an order for delivery within four working days that would be charged 2.95 pounds. For this case, the consumers were to ship back the product if it did not meet their needs at their expenses within 14 days.
The celebrity publications affected the company. This is because the celebrities are featured as walking billboards for fashion. According to Robert, the company is offering some of the ways that the stars have in the magazines and music videos that they are featured in. Also, they are in the films and televisions that people watch each day. With this, the company is sure to make more profit for people are watching the stations each day, and they will come across a particular fashion that meets their preference, and it is the same fashion that is found at ASOS. ASOS.com is likely to move faster than a physical store, and they are likely to replace the new products online in hours or within hours instead of doing it after days and weeks.
Since the demand was high, the company thought that it was best for them to move its fulfilment centre to a more extensive warehouse that is 13,000 square foot in Amersham England. The holiday sales were 75 per cent of the previous year. Women are the people that bought most of the products in the company for they accounted for over 80 per cent of the total sales. For the company to increase it rate of sales in the other countries such as the United States, they decided that they will distribute the same ration of men’s wear and women labels. Expanding the bricks and mortar effort to Liverpool was a project for the company, but this was not much success for it became a disappointment.
The CEO claims that the returns from the project were insufficient for them to justify the activity. As a result of this project, the company prefers that they use offline exposure so that they can drive an increasing number of people to use the site. The CEO claims that for every pound that they use, it is best if it is used electronically. Shop fittings can cost up to ВЈ40,000 including rents, rates and stock.
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