ASOS Marketplace: Third-Party Brand Perspective
Former Trading Director at ASOS & Current Ann Summers Director
inpractise.com/articles/asos-marketplace-third-party-brand-perspective
ASOS plc
Why is this company interesting?
ASOS is a UK-listed online fashion retail platform with over 26m customers across the UK, EU, and the US. The company was founded in 2000 and generates ~£4bn in sales with ~45% private label and exclusive brand collaborations and 60% from branded suppliers.
The company mainly operates a traditional online wholesale model but has recently launched a 3P-marketplace to widen the selection. ASOS sources 60% of the assortment on longer lead times from APAC and 40% from the UK or Europe. The company targets ~70% full price sales with a lower intake margin than offline competitors but also a lower promotional rate which leads to a gross margin of 45-50%.
Over the last 5 years, ASC has grown the customer base from 12m to over 26m customers that order ~3.5x per year on average. The average order value is ~£40 including returns and the company is targeting a medium term EBIT margin of 4%. ASC’s CEO recently stepped down and the original cofounder is a non-exec holding ~3% of shares outstanding.
Written in Dec 2021
ASOS Marketplace: Third-Party Brand Perspective(November 4, 2022)
Former Trading Director at ASOS & Current Ann Summers Director
Interview Transcript
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Yes, that’s true and it’s happened incredibly swiftly as well. I think that amongst that rubble, there might be some opportunity but I guess we’ll find that out. I know that in your role at Ann Summers, you still come into contact with ASOS quite a lot; are they one of your bigger channels?
They are my biggest third-party partner and they are absolutely killing my third-party business at the moment. They are not taking any deliveries. I think we released some last week. I think part of their problem is that they phased all of our stock back. We do pre-orders with them; they book stock with us and we book that with our supplier. It comes in at the same time as my stock comes in for my own channels. What we are finding with ASOS is that they have phased all the stock back so they are not taking it in. When I was there, one of the things I was adamant about is that I needed stock so that when the third-party brand went live with it, I was live with it as well. I want to be first to market. Now, they are at least three months behind me. I have stockpiles now that they won’t even take in from me for another three months. They’ve even phased some stock until next season.
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