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ASOS: An Online Fashion Destination

Ask any marketer to name an online retail business they admire and the response will always include: ASOS.


ASOS is an online fashion destination for 20-year old millennials. Its online platform works by choosing the best fashion items from a variety of brands and grouping these items with the company's products.

This strategy has not only helped ASOS sell their own products, but it has also led them to become the best online fashion destination. In fact, the company has amassed over 80,000 branded and own-brand products.

Trends data provider SEMrush crunched online fashion search data to uncover online shopping trends and the most popular e-commerce sites in terms of fashion sales, over the past year.

Top 10 Fashion E-commerce Web Sites:
  1. Asos.com
  2. Hm.com
  3. Macys.com
  4. Supremenewyork.com
  5. Uniqlo.com
  6. Rei.com
  7. Zara.com
  8. Jcpenney.com
  9. Nordstrom.co
  10. Grailed.com
(Source: SEMrush)


What makes ASOS the most popular fashion e-commerce website? The data shows that this has a lot to do with social media because social media is the main way to drive traffic to the site. ASOS has as many as 9.6 million Instagram fans, and it often works with online stars to get more attention.


ASOS has adopted a cross-channel approach by using a number of paid and organic channels to promote the brand and product range.


  • ASOS Insiders Community

ASOS didn't want to start a generic marketing campaign, instead, they wanted to develop an authentic way to communicate with their customers. They knew that influencers were key to communicating their ideal messages, and that is why they created the ASOS Insiders Community.


ASOS Insiders is a group of 20-year old millennials who post their fashionable outfits on social media. Not only have these influencers curated irresistible OOTDs (Outfit of the Day), but they also have distinct styles. From full tomboy to 90’s looks, street style to maternity wear, all insiders offer fashion inspiration for every type of ASOS customer.

What makes these posts a stroke of genius, is that they're more than just for viewing pleasure. In fact, interested customers can buy featured outfits straight from their social media accounts.

On Instagram, users can see the code for the product in the image caption. They can also visit the influencer's curated page on the ASOS website through a tracked link. Meanwhile, at Pinterest, images are directly linked to the product's page.


  • Connect with the consumer without involving the product

Some of ASOS's social media content does not involve any product, but rather directly relates to the customer's lifestyle. This strategy allows publishing content that is directly related to its target audience and, most importantly, content that is more likely to be shared across their respective social networks. This content gets the attention of fans through intensive social media information, which is more similar to what friends post than the retailer's promotional content. Examples of such content include entertainment-based re-released content and original content. There is a series of short videos of music on YouTube. In the video, The House Band, the internal band of ASOS official website, is singing a variety of topics that are not related to the brand's products.



  • Mix promotion with content

The combination of popular culture and promotion is time-tested. For example, the "GIMMEMORE" promo code recently released on Facebook is about the birthday of American pop singer Britney Spears. During the holiday season, ASOS set up a screenshot of the 2004 American movie "Mean Girls" on its website to announce a short-term discount. Celebrity news and style blogging also offered the brand an opportunity to promote products on its site, which can help consumers create similar looks.




  • Theme propaganda

 ASOS encourages interaction with customers on a variety of popular cultural topics every day in a variety of ways. On Halloween, if you search for "trick" or "treat" on their website, you can see some cute cartoons. In November, there is also an interactive Twitter game based on the concept of delivering packages. One of the days in December is Twitter Claus, and shoppers can get prizes on their wish list.



In this way, Asos became an extremely active friend to share news with fashionable youth.



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Comments

  1. Jack MartinOctober 16, 2019 at 7:12 AM

    This is a fascinating example of a company that completely resides in the groundswell. Asos is built as an online website, so to be successful, it needed to interact well with online users. It seems that Asos succeeded in this endeavor quite well. The most interesting aspect of Asos is their influencers. As you mention, their posts on Instagram can be interacted with and users can buy their clothes straight from the post. This is a great way to subtly advertise a product while also giving users an easy way to purchase a product. Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Simran October 16, 2019 at 9:17 AM

    Hi Phoebe,
    ASOS is a great example of how brands today engage with the groundswell. Particularly interesting was using Mean Girls and an internal band (which is such a cool idea!) to best attract their targeted age demographic. Also, thanks for sharing that interesting bit of statistics. I had no idea ASOS was even doing better than Macy's and Nordstrom in E-commerce, wow.
    Well articulated post :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Adela's Marketing ConsultantOctober 16, 2019 at 10:38 AM

    I like your example of ASOS that how they tap into the groundswell. They didn't use the typical way to engage. It kinds like they didn't use too much social media to social because they are social media. And the statistics are really surprising me that ASOS is the top one in E-commerce.

    ReplyDelete

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