Asos : Absolutely Social Online Store ?

Hello and welcome to a new post! I had a break last week from blogging, but this week I brought you a treat/ apology post that I am sure you will enjoy. In this post I will talk about ASOS, one of  my favourite stores. Through the post, I will outline ASOS's social media strategies in boosting sales and marketing, reflecting on Mckinsey's value levers (see the picture below).

(McKinsey,2012)

About ASOS:

Asos is an international fashion and beauty online store. Founded in 2000, by Nick Robertson and Quentin Griffiths. Selling their own products and over 850 other brands, ASOS is Britain's largest online fashion and beauty retailer.

The name ASOS is an abbreviation for " As Seen On Screens", however the brand has expanded more than that to include a marketplace where people can sell their own things. ASOS's head of analytics and customer intelligence David Williams explains the company's vision:

"Our ambition as a business is straightforward. We want to be the world's number one destination for fashion for twenty-somethings globally. We want the word Asos to be as synonymous with fashion as Google is with search"

This indeed shows in the number of visits and sales.

The site ships to 237 country including Australia, and attracts over 29.3 million unique visitors every month (See Asos's about page), which make ASOS the most popular retail store in the world. The sales reportedly reached £753.8 million in 2012 (Asos sales, 2011 ).The chart below illustrate ASOS's sales in the last 12 years.It clearly shows the rapid increase in ASOS sales since 2000.

Source: Asos sales (2011 )

So, how ASOS does that ?
The secret ingredient of their success is the powerful use of social technologies. Social media is ASOS's heart, they based all the contents around their consumers' needs and wants. Below I will discuss some of these social media tools, and how it is effectively implemented to boost sales. SME business owners may want to take notes.

How ASOS uses social media to boost their sales and marketing strategies:

1. FACEBOOK

Asos's Facebook account has generated about 3,470,507 likes.The number is not surprising for the effort ASOS makes in reaching customers trust and quality engagement. ASOS posts up to 2 to 3 daily posts including holidays and weekends.Moreover, it replies to almost every comment even negative and random ones in a professional manner. This has resulted in creating sense of credibility for the brand.

In 2011, asos established the Facebook app where customers can make purchases and share it without leaving Facebook ( McEleny, 2011). The application is expected to achieve high sales because Facebook brings the most traffic to the brand site.

2. Twitter

Asos has three active Twitter accounts @ASOS, @ASOS_Heretohelp and @ASOS_Menswear. This is so marketing messages and consumer engagement be functioned in the best manner.

The main account @ASOS has 179k followers. The account posts 3 to 4 daily tweets mainly about fashion tips, inspirations and new sales and offers. Although, the account gets hundreds of mentions every day they reply to most of it to establish friendly relationship with their customers and gain their loyalty. Most tweets are retweetable/ relatable posts to insure brand spread! (see the techniques!:) )

Moreover, ASOS held interactive games on their account. The latest game was #TodayIs where customers complete the sentence with a short story. The best story wins a 25% discount.Through this games ASOS gained interaction of over 60,000 people and showcased about 400 product.( Sound like a lot of fun does not it ?). So we can see these games are not only created for entertaining purpose and raising awareness of their merchandise.

3. Instagram

Asos has about 1 million followers. The main Instagram shows style inspirations and presents the latest sales and offers. It also repost customers style from the hashtag #ASOSStyle which attracts many customers to share. Moreover, it provides the captured items product ID, so followers can directly locate the item and purchase it. ( Clever clever clever!)

The secondary account @asos_studio account is to show the

models life behind the scenes. Being open and welcoming impact customers in the way they feel part of the organisation. Resulting in, increasing their desire to purchase or even model for this friendly brand.

4. Vine

36 thousand people follows ASOS on vine.The site presents 6 minutes video about new products, runways, models and other random and entertaining vines. One of the most popular campaigns launched on vine was the #ASOSUnbox. The campaign invited customers to share their orders unboxing experience, using the hashtag #ASOSUnbox. There were prizes offered to every participant.

5. Youtube

ASOS on Youtube has about 700 videos with 14,949,987 views and a total of 28,003 subscribers. This tool is used to show interviews with celebrities, fashionistas, bloggers and to demonstrate style tips. All the participants in these videos usually wear from the brand fashion or beauty product , then these product listed in the description box with its link in the store. Moreover, ASOS does not only market their products in their channel, but it also sponsor famous Youtubers to film "hauls" which is pretty popular in the youtube. These strategies drive the customer insight toward trusting the brand and is the perfect implementation of  social commerce.

TO SUM UP:

ASOS is one of the leaders in the social media world. Their secret of success is straightforward. Obtaining customers trust by listening to what they need and want. Establishing 24 hour engagement yet weighing each word carefully. The post illustrated 5 of the social media tools used by ASOS and how they use it to their benefit.

Comment below tell me how you heard about ASOS for the first time?

Also, do you follow any of their social media, if you do which one and why?

Thank you for passing by.

References :

Asos sales boosted by international growth.BBC News UK. (2011, July). Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13625073

Social media analytics in action.The guardian.(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/salesforce-partner-zone/social-media-analytics-in-action-asos-christmas
McEleny, C. (2011). Asos unveils Facebook store. Marketing week. Retrieved from http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/asos-unveils-facebook-store/3022415.article

McKinsey & co.(2013). The social economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies[ELB Version]. Retrieved from http://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey%20Offices/Korea/PDFs/The_Social_Economy.ashx