Analysis Of The Reasons Why ASOS Can Be "Arrogant" Today

Thanks to the British mainland

And the continuous growth of the international market, the United Kingdom

Electricity supplier ASOS's annual profit has risen by 37%.

Obviously, in England.

In the depressed environment, ASOS became the winner under the dark clouds.

According to the financial report, in the 2016 fiscal year ended August 31st, ASOS's retail sales in the UK market rose 27% to 603 million 800 thousand pounds, and the international retail sales rose 25% to 799 million 900 thousand pounds.

Excluding the special projects and the business that has been terminated, the pre tax profit of ASOS is 63 million 700 thousand pounds, higher than the analyst's forecast of 62 million pounds, and a 37% increase over the previous fiscal year.

In the financial year, as the ASOS sales exceeded half of the international market (US dollar or Euro settlement), the weakness of the British pound enlarged the advantage of ASOS after the British referendum.

At the same time, ASOS's investment in the price mechanism has contributed greatly to international business. The US market sales rose 40% to 179 million 200 thousand pounds, the European market rose 28% to 374 million 900 thousand pounds, and the other countries rose 14% to 245 million 800 thousand pounds.

It is understood that as of August 31st this year, the number of active users on the ASOS website reached 12 million 400 thousand, an increase of 25%, the passenger price increased by 3% to 70.84 pounds, orders increased 30% to 38 million 300 thousand, and social media fans increased by 54%, of which Facebook and Instagram fans reached 6 million 500 thousand and 7 million 500 thousand respectively.

ASOS CEO Nick Beighton expressed satisfaction with the progress of ASOS in the performance conference. He attributed the good performance of the financial year to three points: the rapid updating of product supply, the expansion of the international user base and the marketing role of social media.

He believes that these factors will help ASOS maintain sales growth and resist the difficult conditions of the British local clothing market (since 2009, all the way down).

In addition, according to the forecast, in the new fiscal year ending August 2017, ASOS sales will continue to grow by 25%.

Beighton is very confident in the new financial year. He said: "I hope the international market can continue to drive the growth of ASOS sales, but we do not think that the UK business will drop significantly. We will see that the UK market will show strong performance in other areas."

In this sense, in the dark clouds of Britain's referendum, ASOS has become an outlier in the case of consumer confidence, retail sales and share prices all down.

It has to be said that international business has made great contributions to it.

It is understood that since its launch in 2000, ASOS has been advancing all the way, and is rapidly Internationalizing in the British fashion market.

In 2009, ASOS's overseas orders increased by 95%, with sales amounting to 63 million pounds, accounting for 28% of the total sales, of which the United States became the second largest market after Britain.

This situation enables the management of the company to see the great potential of the overseas market.

However, there are many difficulties in the process of internationalization. Logistics, payment, language, replacement service and so on, no matter which obstacle is not properly solved, will seriously affect the consumption experience of overseas customers.

ASOS decided to start with the American market without language barriers, currency differences and relatively mature means of payment.

In September 2010, the website of ASOS was formally launched. Subsequently, the websites of Germany and France were opened one after another. The three countries' market has brought 180% growth to ASOS.

In 2011, ASOS's website in Spain, Australia and Italy also appeared.

In 10-11 months of 2013, ASOS launched Russia and China websites one after another (China's business was closed in April this year).

In addition, it has opened sales to more than 200 countries around the world.

As James Roper, chairman of the British online retail association, said at the 2016 world electricity supplier conference, "ASOS is the most successful overseas business of British electricity providers. They have some unique strategies, such as global mail delivery, which is a very brave decision."

Of course, in addition to the rapid construction of international channels, there are many reasons why ASOS can be "laughing at the rivers and lakes" today.

According to public information and foreign media commentary, it is summarized as follows:

1. Accurate choice of target customers. ASOS has positioned its core target customers as young people aged 20 or so, and has faced them with their most acceptable online sales.

2, a unique product strategy. In the early days of its creation, ASOS did not launch its own brand goods, but gathered hundreds of offline brands to become an online "brand collection shop".

Its cooperative brands are usually small and have limited financial resources, and it is difficult to develop online sales channels independently. But their designs are very fashionable and affordable, so they have been successful after the launch.

It was not until 2004 that ASOS's own brand women's wear product was formally launched and achieved initial success.

Since then, ASOS has continuously launched its own brand products, and its categories are becoming increasingly perfect -- 2005 beauty products online, 2007 men's wear line, 2009 children's wear line......

Now, its own brand products have become an important pillar of ASOS.

ASOS's products are famous for its "imitation star style" and "new fast". Some movie stars and supermodels are popular at ASOS website. After watching the fashion show, young girls can immediately find the same or same brand clothes in ASOS.

Today, ASOS can even launch more than 4000 new products a week.

3, a competitive price system. Compared with competitors, the price and price of ASOS products are very competitive.

For example, the price of a ASOS skirt is usually between 20-485 pounds, which enables target customers to have more choices within the range of their ability to bear.

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After 2012, ASOS adjusted the product line, increased a large number of moderately priced products, and became more intimate and competitive on the whole.

In 2015, ASOS also implemented localization pricing strategies for overseas websites such as Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the United States, which led many brands to gain competitive advantage in price.

According to statistics, in 2015, although the average unit price of ASOS fell by 1% to 24.7 pounds, the average passenger price increased by 7% to 67.12 pounds.

These advantages support ASOS's victory in the first half, but it still faces challenges and setbacks.

For example, while other international markets are running smoothly, ASOS's Chinese business ends with "losing."

In April this year, it announced that it had terminated its business in China and shut down its Tmall shop after closing its Chinese official website.

However, this does not stop the pace of ASOS's expansion and its "persistent" attitude.

It is understood that ASOS has previously said that in the next period of time, its main input will focus on the four major markets in the UK, France, Germany and the United States.

CEO Beighton recently told foreign media that ASOS is studying AI and speech recognition systems to improve user experience.

They want to use a "chicken blood" Siri to remind customers: "the clothes you see are in stock!"

ASOS is also very clear about his strengths.

Beighton said that ASOS is currently in the global mail market, and it is unlikely that it will provide the same day service charges as Amazon or luxury e-business Net-a-Porter.

"The ASOS platform is mainly a more than 20 year old customer who spends about 56 pounds per capita. They are not willing to pay more freight and are not sensitive to the delivery time of clothes.

But Net-a-Porter is different. Its customers will pay 1000 pounds to buy a skirt, and will have a sense of urgency to wear this dress tonight, and I will not care much about extra freight charges.

It is reported that ASOS expects its revenue from mobile terminals to rise from 66% to 90% in 2020.

In order to achieve this goal, ASOS will also focus on the millennials of various social platforms in addition to continuing to maintain the customer community ASOS Life.