ASOS is a global online fashion retailer offering over 50,000 branded and own label products. It has established a competitive advantage through its innovative combination of online retail, fast fashion, and global delivery capabilities. ASOS knows its target customers of "twenty-somethings" and works to continuously improve the consumer experience. While ASOS excels at creating an easy and engaging shopping experience through features like integrated catwalks and social media integration, it could further maximize long-term strategic advantages by taking cues from Zappos' exemplary customer service culture and implementing changes like prominent phone/chat support.

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Individual Assignment: ASOS
Student: Elena Starikova, PKY1
1. Description of the product/service
Asos.com is a global online fashion and beauty retailer and offers over 50.000 branded and own label
product lines across womenswear, menswear, footwear, accessories, jewellery and beauty.
ASOS ships to over 237 other countries from its central distribution center in U.K.1
ASOS (which stands for As Seen On Screen) was founded in 2000 and served as a website where consumers
could find merchandise that emulated celebrity styles.2
Over time the company expanded, introducing more
styles outside of celebrity photos and began implementing greater product selections, new product
categories such as mens fashion, beauty, etc., and ultimately transforming into one of the biggest online
retailers. (Appendix 1)
2. Company’s current strategic competitive advantage
Just like in an Apple case, ASOS competitive advantage is an innovation. Yes, the company offers affordable
trendy clothes with a wide variety, but these are just important elements as a part of the overall strategy.
ASOS managed to combine online retail experience with a fast fashion. ASOS is a combination of Amazon
with Zara, and only innovative companies can merge two different business models in one.
ASOS way:
Technology since ASOS is an online retail with incredibly fast growth, the IT strategy is a heart of operation.
The online and mobile channels are key revenue channel to the company. The ASOS’ philosophy is that
anything customers are doing online or on their mobile in the fashion space, they should be able to do on
ASOS. 3
Highly efficient retailing Company drives efficiency and excellence in everything they do to ensure they have
the right enablers in place to sustain future growth. In order to do that, ASOS review and streamline its key
1
ASOS official website https://www.asos.com
2
ibid
3
ASOS Annual Report 2013

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suppliers. It introduced ‘First Price Right Price’ philosophy. It hires key talent and focuses on internal
learning and development programme.
Global delivery. ASOS produces merchandise on five continents and ships goods to customers located across
the globe. They aim for the global delivery and return proposition that is speedy, convenient and reliable.
ASOS is the first company to offer free delivery and return globally. No minimum order amount.
Know your customer ASOS knows their customers and what they want. They tailor their sites in various
languages and allow items display in the picked currency. Shopping fashions online could be impulsive, that
is why ASOS uses cat-walk videos and eye-catching photos to create a better customer experience.
3. Analysis in STP of that product/service and its consumer experience
Segmentation
 ‘twenty-somethings’ fashion forward shoppers
 ‘thirty-somethings’
 “forty-somethings”
 “fifty-somethings”
Targeting
ASOS is targeting the ‘twenty-somethings’ due to their website and overall strategy.
Positioning
ASOS has a competitive advantage based on 3 dimensions. First, it is affordable and trendy compare to its
rivalry. Secondary, it has a wide variety, specifically designed for its target segment; therefore it is very
difficult to replicate such an advantage.

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ASOS Consumer Experience:
 Website is very simple and easy to use, and includes a wide range of information (about/categories,
etc.)
 Website is visually appealing
 Customers can create their own account to store payment information and favorites

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 Free shipping and return worldwide 4
 24/7 customer support service
 Customers are able to rotate and zoom images from different angles.
 The products can be viewed as a catwalk, which dramatically increase the conversion rate, because
it provides customer with a better view of the product
 ASOS website is truly integrated with SM, as it is very easy to share the images with Instagram,
Facebook, etc.
 ASOS provides their customers with a wide range of delivery methods.
 At ASOS Blog where customers are able to add their comments and opinions into an open
conversation
 ASOS Marketplace, where customer can sell its own cloth or buy vintage
 ASOS Fashion Finder-social platform to see new trends and popular looks
 ASOS app for the additional customer convenience
4. Description in how consumer experience of that service contribute company’s long-term strategic
competitive advantage and what is a missing gap with consumer need/want/desire
ASOS is doing an incredible job on a consumer experience. With a free shipping, integrated catwalks (short
videos showcasing the product), Fashion Finder feature, simple website design , Blog with latest fashion
trends and full social media integration, consumer is feeling fully informed and in charge of his decisions.
The shopping becomes easy and fun.
Good consumer experience is an important part of the ASOS long-term strategic competitive advantage and
it is constantly looking for a ways to improve this journey. The latest annual UK Customer Satisfaction Index
(UKCSI) by the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) revealed that ASOS topped the chart with a satisfaction
score of 92.7 out of 100.5
But, there is always a room for improvement. Examples of services that ASOS could improve:
Items can’t be left in the shopping bag for a long time:
Customers are not able to keep items in the shopping bag for a long time. This is a disadvantage for the
customers as they may want to keep the orders in the basket and revisit the website at a convenient time.
Language:
The ASOS website is in English however they do offer few additional languages. Since ASOS in undergoing
global expansion, they should be able to add many more foreign languages for the consumer convenience
and pleasant consumer experience.
4
ASOS official website https://www.asos.com
5
Institute of Customer Service Official website: http://www.instituteofcustomerservice.com/

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5. Recommendation of further consumer experience to maximize the business potential and to
contribute company’s long-term future strategic competitive advantage
I wanted to base my recommendation on the king of an online consumer experience Zappos.
Zappos is known for going above and beyond to satisfy their customers. The customer service team doesn’t
have key performance indicators around call volume. Instead their performance is graded on delivering
amazing customer experiences.6
If they have a customer that wants to talk for 20 minutes, they’ll build
rapport and talk for 20 minutes. If they feel like sending a bouquet of flowers to make a customer’s day,
they make it happen. Zappos culture and techniques could definitely complement and enhance ASOS
consumer experience.
Following the Zappos example, ASOS could place the phone number at the prime upper left location of the
main page for the customer’s convenience. Additionally chat box could be added as well. With the chat box,
customer will be able to connect customer service at the real time to ask questions. (Appendix 2)
Also, ASOS could add large banners at the top of the website highlighting Risk Free shopping and Free
shipping. This will decrease the barrier of an initial purchase and promote the trial.
ASOS could add a comments box to each product, that way people could read reviews and share their own
experience with the community.
These elements would help to make ASOS customer experience even more engaging and fun.
6
“Lessons we can all learn from Zappos”, The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/zappos-
ceo-tony-hsieh

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Appendix 1: ASOS Website
Appendix 2: Zappos phone number

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ASOS Catwalk and photos of the product