ASOS plc is a British online fashion and cosmetic retailer. The company was founded in 2000 in London, primarily aimed at young adults. The website sells over 850 brands as well as its own range of clothing and accessories, and ships to all 196 countries from fulfilment centres in the UK, US and EU. ASOS originally stood for AsSeenOnScreen with the tagline "Buy what you see on film and TV" because it exclusively sold imitations of clothing from those mediums. However, it no longer has that meaning and is generally stylised as an uppercase acronym, although the company's logo represents it in lower case. ASOS' headquarters are in Camden Town, at Greater London House with additional offices in Paris, New York, Berlin, and Birmingham., their main fulfilment centre is in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, where they employ 3,500 workers. The customer care department is based in Leavesden, near Watford, in southwest Hertfordshire.
History
2000–2004: Founding and listing
ASOS was established on 3 June 2000, by Nick Robertson, Andrew Regan and Quentin Griffiths. In 2001, ASOS was admitted to the Alternative Investment Market on the London Stock Exchange. In 2003, ASOS shareholders agreed to change the names of AsSeenOnScreen Holdings PLC and AsSeenOnScreen Limited to ASOS plc and ASOS.com Limited. In 2004, the company reported a maiden profit, with sales almost doubling in its first half. In 2004, ASOS introduced their own label for women's clothing.
2005–2012: Development
In 2005, the Buncefield Fuel Depot explosion led to the closure of the business for six weeks and £5m of stock was lost. In 2008, ASOS debuted kidswear on its site, however the branded market subsequently suffered declines at the expense of fast-growing own-label kidswear offers. In 2010, ASOS announced it would no longer offer kidswear, to concentrate on its core young adult fashion market. In the final quarter of 2010, ASOS launched three international online shops in France, Germany and the US. In September 2011, they launched three more sites in Australia, Italy and Spain. In 2012, ASOS opened its first international office in Sydney, Australia, followed by an office in New York. Later on, the company launched its first drama-game show series, called #DIGIDATING, starring AJ Odudu. It was billed as an Internet dating show with backstage drama.
2013–present: Global expansion
In 2013, ASOS opened its first office outside the South East, in Birmingham. Later in 2013, ASOS recalled belts contaminated with radioactive cobalt-60. ASOS Russia and China were launched in the same year. In 2014, a fire in their Barnsley warehouse caused them to stop taking orders for almost three days. During the 2014 Formula One season, ASOS was a sponsor of the McLarenFormula One team. In 2015, ASOS had over 4,000 employees and was the UK's largest independent online and fashion beauty retailer. In September 2016, an investigative report from Buzzfeed News alleged poor working conditions at ASOS' warehouse. However, company spokespersons contended that the isolated complaints reported in the Buzzfeed article were not reflective of the general working conditions there. In April 2019, ASOS informed its clients through email that the company is looking into ways of changing its easy returns policy, after research showed customers were manipulating the easy return process. The company also admitted that the previous return policy was environmentally costly. In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, ASOS was accused by some staff and workers unions of "playing Russian roulette with people’s lives" by failing to adequately enforce preventative measures in their Grimethorpe, Barnsley site. It was claimed that the warehouse staff could not safely operate whilst maintaining social distancing, that the staff felt unsafe and that ASOS's product was not actually essential, thus not meeting the UK Government's recommendation that only essential workplaces remain open. The company refuted these claims, claiming they had sufficiently changed their operation to comply, Barnsley Council also inspected the site and found that the company was complying.
Digital marketing
In November 2009, ASOS claimed a ratio of one Twitter follower to eight Facebook fans to 100 active e-mail subscribers. Their 2008 report pointed out that nearly 10% of sales could be directly attributed to email marketing. In 2017 ASOS launched a campaign intended to take full advantage of the 'Instagram Stories' feature, encouraging users to upload videos of purchased ASOS products. 3 million people interacted with the video in the UK. ASOS uses the #AsSeenOnMe hashtag and any use of the hashtag adds the photos to an ASOS online database. , a mobile app allows users to upload images of clothing they like in order to receive suggestions of matching or similar items that the company stocks. ASOS claims that in the UK, 58% of purchases happen on mobile devices.
