Online Fashion Retailing

Background of the company

ASOS is one of the leading British beauty and online fashion store headquartered in London, England. The company has its target market of young adults. It deals in selling over 850 brands along with its own range of exotic clothing and other accessories (Moore, Doherty and Doyle, 2010). The major products which the said company renders to its target market include menswear, womenswear, footwear, beauty products and fascinating jewellery items. The company's websites targets the market of UK, USA, Australia, Germany, France, China, Italy, Spain and Russia and gains maximum share in the market by attaining the highest level of customer satisfaction through its premium and impressive customer services.

Analysis and evaluation of the ASOS digital Retail presence

The role of online marketing or digital marketing is showing a tremendous increase in the present hyper competitive environment. It is one of the most impressively used channel for shopping online. This mode of shopping is driving a major change in the retail industries. The retail stores are now changing their overall mindset and are significantly focusing on expanding their business activities by the means of online sales. The fashion retailers are on a great threat and to overcome such threat, the concerned retailer sector is laying its utmost attention over conducting its business by rendering the premium services through online market. With regard to this context, the online fashion retailing is growing immensely and is acquiring a significant market share in the tough trading corporate environment (Jones and Kim 2010).

ASOS is one of the leading online fashion retail company in UK. Currently, a study reveals the fact that the stated entity is experiencing slow and poor market growth in the vast and volatile international market. The company's share is dropped by 8% and its overall revenue and income generation has experienced a sudden downturn. With this context, ASOS has laid its prime concern over making huge and significant investment in new and innovative technologies to enhance its customer experience and maximise its total sales revenue (Pentecost and Andrews, 2010). For this purpose, the company has undertaken a cross-channel plan of approach with a view to promote its brand along with a wide range of its fascinating products across the globe. The major digital channels which ASOS is using are explained as follows-

Twitter- The company has multiple profiles on Twitter which renders impressive customer support, trend updates to a large crowd of its core audience. By tweeting many times within a day, ASOS uses a variety of effective combination of men's clothing and accessories items which highly satisfies the needs and demands of its main customers (Xia and et.al., 2012). The said entity also offers exclusive discounts and unique content to its followers which they usually don't get on any other channels.

Google+ - ASOS has created exotic features for its products and services which are daily posted on Google+. This enables the organisation to share its products by showing an impressive 'human side' towards its brand.

Facebook- The entity alters its content on Facebook to catch the attention of its users in a very significant way.

Therefore, by altering the content of its products and items across the different digital channels, ASOS is able to make a significant share in the international market by gaining a strong brand recognition across different corners of the world (Choi and Chiu, 2012).

Apart from this, the core competitors of ASOS include Bohoo, N Brown, Marks and Spencer, New Look and Tesco. The concerned online fashion retail company is having a significant threat from its core competitors. Therefore, with a view to overcome its threat, ASOS focuses on adopting competitive price strategies thereby offering attractive discounts to beat the line of its core competitors in an effective and appropriate way.

Importance of customer insight from keywords research

When an individual wants to search a particular thing online by using different search engines like Google, Bing etc. they seek to type certain words into the search column to expect the relevant results which they need. This method is known as keywords research. It therefore becomes important for online retail companies to use appropriate and suitable keywords within its site's content with a view to reach to large crowd of audience around the world. This is one of the most valuable thing of conducting the business operations via online channels (Diamond, Diamond and Litt, 2015). Researching the correct keywords helps the company to gain detailed understanding of the personal phrases which its customers use the most. It also benefits the entity to gain appropriate knowledge regarding the types of customers it uses to have in large.

With regard to the present case scenario, ASOS lays its focus on effectively analysing and evaluating the keywords research in a very significant way. It has a separate agency which works for the company on its keyword research. Doing this helps the stated firm to recognise the consumer insight and perception regarding the company's products and services. The major keywords applied to ASOS for men's clothing segment includes Tartan, Leather, Black shirts\White shirts, sweatshirts/leather jackets, Bomber jackets-quilted and leather, T-shirts/vests-slogan, long line, graphic and oversized etc. All such keywords help the said entity to effectively and impressively reaches the huge crowd of audience thereby acquiring immense market share (Willems And et.al., 2011). The company chooses the best keywords by undertaking the following steps in an effective and systematic manner-

• Analysing the local and monthly researches.
• Monitoring the relevant keyword ideas.
• Matching the keywords with the company's content.

By following the above discussed three main steps, ASOS is able to create and define a prominent list of appropriate keywords for its campaign which helps it to gain the perception level of its core customers in a very significant way. It helps the company to gain the acceptance of its products from its customers and benefits it to reveal the hidden opportunities and strengths in a significant and effective manner.

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Customer Journey Through The Online Fashion Retailer Site

The online fashion retailer sites have increased in a considerable and significant rate in the present hyper competitive global and technological environment. In the current era of modernisation, a customer or an individual is never far away from tablet, phone screen or some other technological or interactive tool. Fashion retailer is now not only confined to printed media or physical outlets but has gained an open gate for expanding its business and experiencing the leading heights of company's success through online marketing. Because of such factor, organisations are becoming more innovative by harnessing immense digital technology to offer customers with the same kind of fashion retail experience which they are expecting to enjoy.

In context with the present company, that is, ASOS, the company posts its advertisements on all the major digital platforms which broadly includes Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest to market its products thereby reaching to a huge crowd of population in a very significant way (Zhenxiang and Lijie, 2011). The customers are now having a changing mindset. The old mindset of customers reflects the careless consumption habits whereas the new mindset reflected the considered consumption habits in a highly effective way. The below diagram clearly reflects the customers' mindset towards the online fashion retailing market segment in a systematic and appropriate way-

Besides such a changing mindset attributes of the consumers, the customers journey through the online fashion retailer site is increasing at a rapid pace. As per the consumer research survey conducted by Conlumino, it was revealed that more than half of the world's population was using around two to three different channels for the purpose of online shopping.

Besides this, ASOS lays its major concern over implementing consumer buying behaviour theory in a systematic and appropriate way. With the help of such theory, the said entity is effectively able to analyse and evaluate the consumer’s journey through its online retailer site. The theory underlies the consumer's changing mindset towards shopping over the period of time.

By undertaking this theory, ASOS focuses on its two set of core consumers which either possess a high involvement or low business involvement. For this purpose, the company uses two set of consumers namely, complex buying behaviour customers and variety seeking behaviour customers. The study now focuses on their journey through the online fashion retailer site of ASOS. The customers in earlier times did not possess the trust, confidence, commitment and loyalty towards the online products. With this fact, ASOS took into consideration the product specification approach which enabled the customers to get detailed knowledge and understanding of the products in a significant and effective way. For the customers who posses complex buying behaviour, ASOS focuses to deal with effective and impressive promotional strategies. The company uses social and digital media as on of the major ground to seek the attention of large crowd of audience effectively (Ha and Stoel, 2012). It uses Twitter, Google+, Facebook to gain the customers interest thereby detailing all the aspects of men's clothing, that is, the size, colour, fabric, price etc. With the help of such product specification approach, the cited firm was able to gain higher market share with great level of customer satisfaction and enjoyment. The customers were now showing an upward movement towards the online shopping which helped ASOS to increase its sales revenue thereby gaining maximum profit and turnover.

For its another set of consumers that is customers having a behaviour of varieties, ASOS lays its concern over rendering exotic and unique varieties to its huge crowd of target market. For this purpose, the company uses online billboards as one of the essential online sales promotional techniques (Brynjolfsson and Rahman, 2013). With this approach, the customers were heavily and impressively attracted towards the brand which helped the concerned entity to gain strong and positive brand recognition across the globe.

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Recommending the two online tools not currently used by ASOS

ASOS make effective use of social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram etc. to reach to a huge crowd of audience in a highly significant and appropriate way. By using such effective online tools for its marketing, the company is impressively able to gain a large and heavy share in the market thereby making a competitive and winning edge in the vast international economies (10 Tools For Business Development and Relationship Management, 2011). However, besides attaining such a global exposure the company fails to beat its core line of competitors which broadly includes Tesco, Marks and Spencer, New Look etc. All such companies uses social media to gain large scale public attraction thereby generating an immense threat for ASOS (Fernie and Sparks, 2014). All of its competitors focus on using mobile marketing services along with introducing mobile android apps in a significant and effective manner. This benefits the crowd to gain a strong brand recognition of other companies thereby resulting ASOS in failure.

With such a perspective, the concerned company is recommended to lay its significant attention on using other exotic and fascinating online promotional tools to gain high market share with relative market growth. Therefore, the company is advised to post banners on third party websites and uses video posting in order to seek the interest, preference and customer attention in a very effective and significant way. The detailed analysis of such online promotional tools along with the factors which bring tremendous success and benefits to the company is explained as follows-

Posting banners on third party websites- With a view to gain a large market share in its men's clothing segment, ASOS lays its concern over promoting its products and items in a very impressive way. For this purpose, the concerned company focuses on posting banners on third party websites which helps it to reach to huge crowd of population in a significant and effective way. The said online retail group posts effective and impressive advertisements on the home page of other websites which enables the consumers to directly click on that advertisement and reach to the home page of ASOS and select the clothing and other accessories as per the needs and requirement of an individual (Magrath and McCormick, 2013). The said entity also mention all the details regarding the men's clothing products that is the maximum number of stock available, size of the material, its fabric, colour, price, vat charges etc. which provides accessibility and comfort to its core audience and helps them to develop a strong sense of brand loyalty, commitment and confidence in a very significant way.

Video posting- The concept of video posting is new which will help the company to gain maximum level of attention for its concerned products and services. Video posting generally refers to the criteria of uploading a prominent and impressive video of the company's product in its official website to gain the attraction of huge crowd of masses in a very significant and effective way. Therefore, with regard to the present case scenario, ASOS is highly recommended adopting such an innovative and differentiated online promotional tools to expand its market within the vast international economies (Blázquez, 2014). By uploading an exotic and attractive posts in its official website, the said entity with no doubt would be able to gain maximum benefits which in turn will allow it to maximise its overall sales revenue thereby multiplying its profit margin ratio. Apart from this, with the help of posting the video of its major products in you-tube and other official websites, the company would be able to gain a strong and positive brand recognition in the increasingly competitive global environment. Furthermore, it will help the said entity to attain an exotic and fascinating global exposure thereby gaining the highest public satisfaction and enjoyment (Lee, Youn and Lee, 2012). Besides posting its video in many websites, the company should also take into consideration, the posting of videos which are ethical and seeks to influence the interest, taste and preferences of its customers in a highly effective and impressive manner.

Digital Fashion Retailing Legislation

The online fashion retailing companies should lay their prominent focus on its legal and regulatory framework. This is one of the crucial factor which allows its customers to develop a strong sense of trust, loyalty and confidence towards its brand. With a view to gain this objective, ASOS focuses to maintain a high level of data security in a very effective and significant way. The company maintains proper security of its client's data along with the customer transaction process. Apart from this, ASOS develops proper licensing arrangements in order to build strong and positive relationships with its target customers. Furthermore, the concept of antitrust applicable to online retailers and brands helps ASOS to identify and determine the type of business conduct that is whether a horizontal or vertical conduct of business activities is suitable for its overall organisational structure (Castelli and Brun, 2010). Besides all such legislation, the company very effectively focuses on posting ethical and proper advertisements regarding its products and services in an impressive and appropriate way. It avoids false advertising phenomenon which helps the concerned entity to avoid the interference of government and judicial legislation within its framework thereby gaining maximum trust and loyalty from its core customers. ASOS also takes into account the labour and employment act which benefits the organisation to address all the fundamental and ethical issues significantly related to wages and working hours, working conditions and the other related issues. In addition, the rights of publicity is also viewed as one of the major legislative activity by ASOS which assist the company to address the issues and rights arising within the online fashion retail market segment (Havice, 2016).

Conclusion

The tastes and buying habits of the consumers have shown a rapid change by shifting immensely from traditional buying approach to modern buying approach. Taking all such perspectives in mind, ASOS came with all the innovative and exotic ideas to gain a prominent and competitive market share in the vast international economies. The report has effectively helped to gain detailed knowledge regarding the company's digital retail presence along with the evaluation of the significance of customer insight from the organisation's keywords research.