Once a cheap website offering copies of celebs looks, Asos.com has now become a prime destination for sophisticated fashion lovers, selling niche designer brands, the top of the high street and its own fashion forward lines, like Asos Black and Asos White. More affordable than Net-a-Porter, but just as stylish and efficient, it is now the UK’s largest independent online fashion retailer, with over 35,000 products available.
Asos has gone a long way since it was established ten years ago: originally known as “As Seen on Screen”, the website used to sell rather dubious and cheap imitations of looks seen on celebrities such as Sienna Miller or Victoria Beckham. Nowadays however, far from copying the stars, Asos does inspire them, with celebs like Rihanna, Katy Perry and Kate Hudson all wearing its designs.
Now the fastest-growing retailer in the UK, it has got over 35,000 branded and own label products available, more than 1100 brands available and over 1500 new lines added each week. It is therefore rapidly becoming the market leader in the UK online fashion world, with over 6.9 million unique visitors a month and 1.6 active buyers.
What makes it great in terms of offer is is not only the volume of its stock -added to a user friendly presentation and an efficient delivery system- but also its quality and variety, from super hot brands like Halston Heritage, established designers like Vivienne Westwood or Marc Jacobs, high street collections by French Connection or Whistles, collaborations with up-and-coming designers like Louise Gray and its increasingly sophisticated and super trendy own lines of clothes.
Tellingly, its strength is increasingly coming from its own womenswear label, which delivers bang on trend pieces at affordable prices. The mainline Asos Collection has been joined by the pricier Asos Black since last year, which specialises in glamorous cocktail dresses made of luxury fabrics, and by Asos White last September, a day collection made of fifty premium contemporary pieces, priced from £20 to £290. Exactly what women want…
Below: Pieces from the autumn-winter 2010 collection from Asos Black (left) and Asos White ( right)
