Asos has launched a website specifically for its customers in Russia which the company says is its fifth biggest market outside of the UK. The launch comes ahead of its entry into China in October with a standalone business for the country as it continues its ambition to become the number one fashion destination for 20 somethings, globally.
Announcing its six months financials, Asos CEO Nick Robertson also commented that the company is on track to hit its target of £1bn of sales “quite quickly” with figures for this full financial year projected to reach £740m with a profit of £52m.
Retail sales for the six months ended 28 February 2013 were up 34% to £352.3m (2012: £262.9m) and profit before tax and exceptional items up 11% to £25.7m (2012: £23.1m).
Robertson puts the increase in sales down to efforts made by the company since “we haven’t seen anything” in terms of
improvement in the economic climate. “UK sales are holding up [with 26% growth on 2012’s figures] because of things we did,” he says. The most important has been the 9% reduction in prices across womenswear “to keep the customers rolling in.
“We have continued to invest in all aspects of the customer offer to maximise the growth opportunity; investing in product price and quality, enhanced delivery options [including a premium midnight British online businesses are growing more than 50 times faster than the economy as a whole, a new study has found. The Barclays report came as separate spending data from Barclaycard showed online sales climbed by 10.1% in the first week of April, compared to a dip of 4.8% across overall retail spending. Research by Barclays’ technology, media and telecoms industry team found the average online company saw 11.4% compound annual growth over the last three years, with half of those questioned enjoying double digit growth over that time. The UK cut off for next day delivery], a broad range of marketing initiatives, focused local teams in international territories and continual improvement to our technology platforms, most notably mobile and international sites.” Mobile accounts for nearly 30% of traffic.
“We are already seeing the benefits of this investment across all territories with increased customer awareness, increased shopper frequency, higher conversion rates, more items per basket and strong sales growth. At the same time we have reached the milestone of six million active customers worldwide.”
