asos business strategy report final-2
TRANSCRIPT
Candidate Number: 35446Course Code: N1079
1. Executive Summary
This report provides an analysis and evaluation of the current and prospective
position of Asos plc. within the online retail market. Additional attention is given to
current economic environment and its influence on the online retail market.
Analytical part of report covers industry structure analysis, application of Porter’s five
forces model, value chain and generic strategies and the competitive advantage
obtained from those. The report finds that Asos’s competitive advantage lies in doing
the same things in a different way than its rivals. Also online fashion retail, has been
and will be on rise, with the most important channels being online stores, mobile
phones and social networking. By analysing data and company’s facts, this report
comes up with relevant recommendations for Asos; expansion to China and other big
strategic markets, focusing on the value segment and menswear, as in five years
those are where the growth opportunities will be, building up new distribution
channels and purchase points.
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Candidate Number: 35446Course Code: N1079
2. INTRODUCTION
2.1. INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
2000 was a turning point for retail channels. Before small, overvalued
companies, that generally make losses, were present in the online retailing
(i.e. boo.com). Most of those companies collapsed in 2000, and around 2001
the second phase of “e-tail” started.
Estimated world total apparel market at retail prices was US$680bn for 2000
and in 2007 grew to US$769bn. The shares of retail channels in 2000 and
2007 are as follows respectively; traditional retail shops by 69.8%, then down
to 65.0%, catalogues on the internet 0.1%, then up to 5.2%, social networking
by almost zero percentage, then up to 2.0% (Newberry, 2010)
In 2008, quotas were eliminated at EU’s clothing trade. This was also a
turning point for the evolution of global clothing market. China and some
other low labor cost countries became major suppliers in the industry, thus
costs were reduced. In spite of this development, financial crisis, that hit the
global markets in the same year, brought forth decrease in demand for all
kinds of products, including clothing. (Curran, 2009)
As response to the 2008 financial crisis’ outcomes, the mass market first tried
to lower the price points and later decided it’s best to introdce budget
merchandise.Since then the consumers become more knowledgeable, fickle
and demanding.(Newberry, 2010) Consumers shifted to online retailers to
spend their money, mostly because of the bargain offering fame of theirs.
(Collins, 2008)
UK retail market is in mature state; on the other hand, online retail market is a
young one that shows dramatic growth, since its introduction between 1998
and 2002. (Times 100, 2009) The same can be said for the global markets as
well.
2.2. ASOS plc.
When Asos started, it was a different business model; the company then
called “as seen on screen” and was focusing on giving informations about the
products seen in tv shows and films, hoping to get paid by the sellers of the
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featured items. Seeing that the idea didnt worked they changed the business
model and website name to ASOS betwen 2001 and 2002.(Anonymous,
2007)
(http://asos.annualreport2010.com/Doc/pdf/AnnualReport.pdf)
Asos.com is a pure play online retailer in the mass market,based in London.
Its product range constitues of own brands, national and international brands
and contemporary designer brands.It has a ‘fahion bargain’ reputation, which
positions the company in the market. (Newberry, 2010) The company took
over the market leadership in the UK online retail industry from Next in 2010.
(Datamonitor, 2011)
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Women's wear, men's wear, children’ wear, footwear, accessories, jewelry
and beauty products are offered at the website, in which more than 36,000
products can be found and approximately 1,300 new product lines are being
introduced each week.
(http://asos.annualreport2010.com/Doc/pdf/AnnualReport.pdf)
In 2008 ASOS outlet, in 2004 asos women, in 2007 asos men,in 2009 little
asos, in 2010 Marketplace,US, Germany and France websites, 2011 Fashion
Finder and Facebook store were introduced .(Datamonitor, 2011)
3. COMPETITTIVE ADVANTAGE
Porter (1980, p. 3) argues “Competitive advantage grows fundamentally out of
value a firm is able to create for its buyers that exceeds the firm’s cost of
creating it.” A company could gain competitive advantage either by doing
different things than its competitors, or by doing things differently than its
competitors. (O’Shannassy, 2008)
3.1. E-VALUE CHAIN
In the light of Nicholls and Watson’s (2005) research, the e-value chain of
Asos will investigated under these strategic headings; firm infrastructure,
marketing and sales, logistics and fulfilment. In line with Porter’s (2001) e-
value chain analysis, some supporting and primary activities are combined
due to the nature of online retailing business. HRM, technology development,
operations and service delivery are included in “Firm infrastructure”. Inbound
and outbound logistics are examined under “logistics and fulfilment”.
“marketing and sales” goes in line with Porter’s value chain.( Nicholls,
A.,Watson, A., 2005)
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3.1.1. FIRM INFRASTRUCTURE
Asos is a public limited company (plc), its shares are open to the public on the
Alternative Investment Market (AIM). After joining the AIM in 2001, Asos
made its first profit in 2004. The share price being 5p at the beginnings rose to
350p in August 2008. (Lewis, 2008) In 2010, Asos AIM shares reached 1287p
by making it the Winning AIM Company of the Year. (Louth, 2010) As Nick
Robertson (founder and CEO) mentions, to support the growth of Asos, the
company prefers investing in building infrastructure. (Clews, 2009) Being in
the AIM enables Asos to raise capital, thus it makes it financially easier to
grow. Growth is linked with operational volume increase, and this brings about
economies of scale, which Asos made use of to reduce its costs.
Asos is a great example for organic growth. This is one of the KSFs. They
made use of economies of scale, have found new markets, managed to
increase customer base even by exceeding over the target age group.
(TIMES100, 2007) If a company grows rapidly internally, it is expected to have
some problems related to growth, in terms of distribution, stock, supply, staff
etc., Asos did not experienced any of these.(Times 100, 2007)
Asos’ financial resources enables the company to expand into new markets,
the US, France and Germany. Recent years’ huge financial growth also
strenghtens the company’s domestic operations.(Datamonitor, 2011)
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(http://asos.annualreport2010.com/Doc/pdf/AnnualReport.pdf)
Asos brand has ‘value, high street and premium lines’ and own label products
sales make the half of the total sales. (Barrett, 2011) With the wide product
portfolio Asos aims to respond to the needs of different ages groups, as well
as its core target market 16-34 year olds.(Datamonitor, 2011)
The product life cycle is maybe the most important issue to address in a
fashion business. Another KSF is Asos’s management of the product life cycle
effectively. According to the Boston Matrix model own label dresses and t-
shirts are Asos’s cash cows. Asos is quite fast in managing dogs, since its
outlet section gets renewed frequently. In order to manage the question
Marks, offering discounts by newsletter, Asos Magazine and ‘new in section’
help.(Times 100, 2009) The season differences between the North and South
hemispheres and the customers, taking a trip to hotter climates in winter time
prolongs the life cycle of Asos products. As a result of selling winter and
summer apparel at the same time Asos maximises its revenues.
In September 2010 Asos launched the US version of its website, prices in
dollars, products shipping from the London warehouse with a logistics facility
in Atlanta for returns. (Datamonitor, 2011)
Marketplace has been launched to enable customers to sell to the others and
to buy from each other. At the same time independent designer and retailers
can also benefit, by opening up a store. Marketplace is aiming to be a
competitor of E-bay, and Asos takes 10-15% of the products sold. Asos
Magazine was launched in 2007 to increase sales and the web traffic; it also
helped asos.com to be a fashion issues authority. With the launch of the
Fashion Finder, Asos targets to strengthen its position as a fashion
destination and authority.(Anonymous, 2008) Fashionfinder is aiming to be a
competitor of Polyvore and Shopstyle.(Anonymous, 2011)(Barrett, 2011)
Another KSF is the company’s investment in people and technology.
(TIMES100) Asos has 700 employees, of whom 120 work in IT and 16 work
as designers. Young, trendy females accounts for the majority of Asos’s staff.
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Since they also match the company’s target customer segment, they are
efficient in knowing the customer requirements and meeting them. (Barrett,
2011) Asos gives customer care service from its Facebook and Twitter
accounts in addition to the direct e-mails. The new Asos Facebook store
makes is possible for the customers to make a purchase without leaving it.
(McEleny, 2009) Asos’s organizational culture contributes to gaining
competitive advantage. The company creates a welcoming work atmosphere
by “flexitime” working hours, competitive salaries, benefits like staff discount,
Christmas contests. The staff is allowed to use Facebook and twitter during
work hours, to keep up with what’s going on in the fashion and entertainment
world for the sake of Asos. (Anonymous, 2009) Asos’s paid search activities
has been given to İcrossing so that the company’s marketing team can focus
on other channels. (Anonymous, 2010) The highly efficient website also
contributes to Asos’ success. (TIMES100, 2007)
3.1.2. MARKETING AND SALES
(http://asos.annualreport2010.com/Doc/pdf/AnnualReport.pdf
Asos frequently make collaborations with designer brands. It’s a win-win for
everyone, since young labels and ASOS get the PR and brand awareness
they want, and the designs become affordable for Asos customers. (LCF,
2009) Asos’s collection designed by LCF students was a great success, as
well as the collaboration with Patricia Field.(Anonymous, 2007)
One of the KFSs of Asos is the targeting the right consumer segment in terms
of age, 18-24 year olds does not have mortgages and big debts to pay
(Jones, 2009) Asos’s core target customer group has a tendency to spend
more on clothing and footwear, than the rest of the age groups.( Times 100,
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2007) Those over 35 makes over 20% of Asos’s customer base.( Times 100,
2009)
Asos launched asosreviews.com, in which customers’ negative or positive
comments are gathered from Twitter and Youtube, to emphasize being open
and transparent. (McEleny, 2009) Asos Tee-V was launched with HP to
support London fashion week, this helped to strengthen the ties with the
designers and customers.(Lovett, 2010)
Another KSF of Asos is that the company did spend relatively small amount
on advertising and they chose offline advertising, although it’s an online
business. Asos placed editorial context into magazines like Grazia and found
out that even just mentioning the website address, drove the sales faster than
traditional paid advertising.(Anonymous, 2007) Asos community site Asos life
turned out to be very profitable since it leads the users to Asos website and
strengthens brand loyalty.(McEleny, 2009)
Asos’s high margins let the company to offer free shipping in the UK. Asos’s
free returns option, which is now available in US, Germany, France, also
contributed to the company success.(Barrett, 2011)To Mr. Robertson ‘free
delivery and returns option’ is Asos’s biggest marketing weapon, with the
happy customers and word-of-mouth it created, it brings more value to Asos
than any huge spending on marketing can bring. (Anonymous, 2009) Asos is
online fashion retail leader in Australia and Ireland, and second contender in
Denmark.(Datamonitor, 2011)
Asos has done brand awareness increasing marketing activities. Sponsorship
to next top model on Living TV, Diet Coke partnership that reached on being
42 million of cans. From November 2009 to March 2010, Asos brand
recognition increased from 46% to 62%. Behind Galmour, Asos magazine is
the second biggest fashion magazine in the UK, with 450,000 circulation and
it is considered the key marketing tool.In 2006 Asos was the first online
fashion retailer in launching its own produced catwalk for its apparel.
(Datamonitor, 2011)
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3.1.3. LOGISTICS AND FULLFILMENT
Asos has a strong distribution network, which is another KSF (Cross, A.,
Fosh, J., 2009)
High demand to Asos products leaded to lack of capacity in the warehouses,
in 2004 Asos had to issue a profit warning; another warning came after the
Buncefield depot explosion in 2005. After the incident Asos made a deal with
the third party logistics provider Unipart. It became a success and cost per
unit has nearly halved (Pryce, S., Jinks, D., 2007) Mr.Robertson mentions
about the importance of logistics to a company by recalling, Amazon turning
away from its mistake of spending millions on TV ads, and investing in getting
things right at logistics (Anonymous, 2009)
Asos increased the number of its carrier from two to four, this increased the
number of delivery options for the customers.(MetaPack, 2010) There is the
next day delivery and standard delivery(2-3 days) options. 85% of the orders
are retractable from the asos web site.
ASOS received the Best Customer Experience award from IMRG eCommerce
Awards, in December 2009.(Datamonitor, 2011) Outside the UK Asos has
delivery to 194 countries. In September 2011, Asos will open a new
warehouse with a capacity of £600 million sales. (Datamonitor, 2011)
Asos Premier is annual service which allows you to have free next day
delivery and free returns pick-up on all of the orders done by a customer in 12
months period, £24.95. There is returns pick-up for £2.95 charged by each
service. The company is still in talks with leading retail brands in the UK about
a new delivery option to pick up orders at points other than customers’ office
or home. (Datamonitor, 2011)
3.2. PORTER’S FIVE FORCES MODEL
Analysis of the industry structure helps a company in strategic positioning.
Not all of Porter’s five forces have a strong influence on an industry at the
same time.
The most influencers affect profitability and strategy formulation. (Porter,
2008)
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3.2.1. Competitive Rivalry
There are many big rivals like New Look, Next, Amazon, eBay,M&S Group,
River Island, Findel plc, N Brown Group plc, Topshop, J.P. Boden & Co. Most
of these companies ship to worldwide addresses. International companies
Zara and H&M are important rivals of Asos, in terms of fashionability and they
have recently entered the European online retail sector. Because the online
retail industry is highly competitive and with significant new comers, Asos’s
market share and profitability could decrease. (Datamonitor,2011) Some of
the established market leaders in the US online retail are
Revolveclothing.com, Shopbop.com and 80spurple.com.(Datamonitor,2011)
In order to rival the well-known discounters like TK Maxx, Asos Outlet was
launched.(Times 100, 2009)
3.2.2. The Threat of New Entrants
Firms like Asos that acquires a lot of profit quickly attracts new entrants in to
the market. Although they lack the infrastutcture of the market leader
companies, they still can be a pressure factor. (Parthasarathy, 2010) Even
though there might not be actual new entrants, but the realization probability
of the new entrants influence profitability.(Porter, 2008)
3.2.3. The Threat of Substitutes
Threat of substitute products is nearly non-existent.
3.2.4. The Bargaining Power of Suppliers
It is relatively low, since there are many low labour countries competing with
each other. As a result of Asos’s international expansion, the company will
gain advantage of a bargaining power with it suppliers. Consequently any
possible price rise on the Asos brand products in 2011 will be relatively low.
(Datamonitor, 2011)
3.2.5. The Bargaining Power of Buyers
The bargaining power of buyers is high in the online fashion industry because
it is a lot easier for customers to search for the best prices online, compared
to the traditional retail industry.
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3.3. PORTER’S GENERIC STRATEGIES
According to Porter (1985) having a clear generic position and achieving
competitive advantage make it possible for a firm to reach its strategic and
financial targets.(O’Shannassy, 2008)
Asos has a broad focus scope and adopts a cost leadership strategy. (Porter,
2008) The downturn of this strategy is having lower customer loyalty and
being known for low quality products. The latter issue has been managed by
Asos by maintaining economies of scale, the former is efficiently managed by
marketing activities.
4. PESTE ANALYSIS
4.1. POLITICAL: In most of the countries government applies sales taxes to
apparel and this has an adverse affect on the margins. (Newberry, 2010) In
january 2011 VAT is increased to 20% this will adversely affect the retail
industry’s volumes.(Datamonitor, 2011)
On the other hand there is no tax on children apparel (HM, 2010) Public
sector jobs will be cut to reduce the government’ spending, consequently
unemployment rates will go up. (Datamonitor, 2011) Labour costs are going
up in the UK; this will have an effect on the retail industry margins.
(Datamonitor, 2011)
4.2. ECONOMIC: Because of the job cuts, low wage growth and tighter lending,
consumer confidence was still negatively affected in 2010. In spite of this,
retail growth in December 2010 was positive. (Newberry, 2010) In 2011 the
UK economy is expected to grow at a low rate of 1.9% according to
December 2010 informations.November 2010 unemployment rate was 7.9%,
and for the age group 16-24 was 20.3%, both being very high. As the
unemployment rates show a pessimistic figure, buying power of consumers
may have a downfall. It is likely to be expected that non-food retail will
downsize because of this economic atmosphere.Rise of inflation levels will put
a rise on the prices. (Datamonitor, 2011)
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4.3. TECHNOLOGICAL: The company who is fast in adopting new technologies
will be more likely one step ahead of the rivals. In the online fashion retail
industry, Asos is one of the first companies in mobile phone channels and the
first in Facebook store channel.
4.4. SOCIAL: Celebrities and their lifestyle has become a raising interest in UK
as well as in the world. When Asos started in 2001, it made copies of the
outfits worn by the celebrities, and still they are selling products “in the style”
of celebrities. (Killgren, 2007)
4.5. ENVIROMENTAL: Mr. Robertson states that on the rainy weekends in the
UK, Asos sales had gone up, since buyers preferred to stay indoors and
spend time online.( Killgren, 2007) It is also known that sunny weather makes
people happy and can lead to shopping for summer clothes.
5.RECOMMENDATIONS
According to 2016 forecasts (Newberry, 2010), markets, online stores, mobile
phones and social networking websites will be the most favoured retail channels.
Asos already uses the latter three channels, in order to make use of these and
growth opportunities efficiently, the following recommendations are given.
Ansoff’s market development strategy should further be applied by Asos. 50% of
world internet traffic is hold by the US and China, and the UK only accounts for 3%.
China could be the Asos’s fifth market, since it’s a big strategic market, and
geographically could help Asos to obtain a big market share in Asia. Once China
operations could reach a certain level, Asos could go into Japan and Korea, the
former being known for fashionable youth, and the latter’s online shopping from
international retailers shows a huge growth. (Jin, B., Moon, H., 2006) Achieving
success in Asia could help Asos to reach its £1 billion sales target, over the next five
years.(Barrett, 2011) Burgeoning markets like India and Russia, whose value
segments show huge growth, could be next ones to target.( Baker, 2006)
Asos is thinking of making US dispatches from there, when the US sales volume will
make it a necessity. (Datamonitor, 2011) This can also be made possible for
Germany, France and for the upcoming new markets. In the new markets,
collaborations with regional bloggers could help Asos gain brand awareness and
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market share. Since bloggers are extremely influencing among youth in today’s
internet world and they seem to be getting more and more powerful in terms of
shaping consumer trends and behaviour.(Anoymous, 2010) This is also in line with
Asos’s ‘spending less on advertising, more on infrastructure’ philosophy.
According to the clothing retail global forecasts, by 2016 there will be polarisations in
the industry. Because of this polarisation mass market will downsize and value
segment will grow. Most important market and channel for value segment will be the
developed world and internet, respectively. (Newberry, 2010) According to forecasts
the same applies to the UK online mass-market and online value segment.
(Newberry, 2010) The demand for men’s fashion products are increasing in the UK,
as well as India and china, with a market growth rate of 25-35%.(Datamonitor, 2011)
Therefore, in terms of market segmentation, Asos should further focus on value and
men’s products, drive growth from of it globally. Ansoff’s product development
strategy should be applied to Asos own brand menswear, and ‘value, high street,
premium’ lines should be added to it.
In terms of resources and capabilities, these website reccommendations could help
Asos; quick look, zoom in the same window, build the look recommendations, online
chat with a customer care assistant, customer reviews of the products. Because
these are what customers value and Asos lacks. (Seock Y, Norton, MJT, 2007)
Asos accepts Sterling, Euros, Dollars, all the Scandinavian currencies. (Collins, J.
2008) On the other hand Revolveclothing.com, which is one of the top online retailers
in the US, has Turkish prices on its website. Asos could also adopt this strategy, and
every year in the top 10 of its markets, at least, regional currencies could be set,
even if the dispatches will be still made from the UK.
Ansoff’s market penetration strategy should be used, since Asos is already thinking
of including some new international brands to its product base in the upcoming
seasons. (Datamonitor, 2011) Asos could launch a new system to include
international brands to its product range. Starting from the biggest customer market,
the company can introduce one of that country’s successful brand to global shoppers
of Asos. In five years time 50 new international brands, each being from a different
country can be included to Asos product range, as long as the dispatches are done
from those countries. Asos could establish an internal dispatch team based on the
related brand’s homeland warehouse.
In terms of innovation, the company could build Asos store computers, similar to
store navigation ones, to the UK shopping centres. Also in shopping streets of cities,
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Asos could put those computers, in the appearance of ATMs. In order to compete
with the traditional retail rivals, %5 discount could be applied to the purchase made
from those computers. In order to prevent abuse, the discount could only be done to
maximum of e.g. 300$ in a month. Logistics and handling returns are generally
financial burdens to online retailers. Asos’s gross margin is negatively influenced by
free shipping it offers in the UK. Reducing the volume of free failed home delivery will
be more than good for the business. For collecting orders and returning unwanted
items, Asos can establish kiosks and desks in some central locations of cities and in
big shopping centres in the UK. (Schultes, 2011)
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Strategic growth in the fashion retail industry (2007) The Times 100 [online] Available at:http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/downloads/asos/asos_13_full.pdf [Accessed 2 May 2011]
Strategic growth in the fashion retail industry (2007) The Times 100 [online] Available at:http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/studies/view-summary--strategic-growth-in-the-fashion-retail-industry--134-325.php#ixzz1LfTe2tay [Accessed 2 May 2011]
The product life cycle and online fashion (2009) The Times 100 [online] Available at: http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/downloads/asos/asos_14_full.pdf [Accessed 2 May 2011]
Graphs taken from: http://asos.annualreport2010.com/Doc/pdf/AnnualReport.pdf [accessed on: 5 May 2011]
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