British online fashion retailer ASOS today announced strong peak season growth of 30% driven by new products and services, including same-day deliveries for ‘want-it-now’ millennials, and is planning more delivery options this year.
The group’s revenue for September – December 2017 increased by 30% to £808 million, with UK sales up 23% to £301 million and international sales 35% higher at £489 million, it said in a trading update. In the home UK market, ASOS said its performance “accelerated” despite a challenging market.
Total orders also increased by 30% to just over 20 million over the four-month period. The number of active customers grew by 19%, the average order frequency went up by 8% and the average basket value was 3% higher.
CEO Nick Beighton commented: “I’m pleased to report a strong performance during the period including peak. We achieved an exceptional performance in the UK, whilst momentum in international sales continued.
“We acquired 2.6 million active customers year on year and saw encouraging movements across all key customer KPIs. Velocity in our technology programmes continued, with a record number of releases.”
The CEO pointed out: “Our customer proposition was further enhanced in the U.K. with the launch of Try Before You Buy and ASOS Instant, our same day delivery proposition.”
ASOS launched the ‘instant delivery’ service in London last October and extended it to Manchester and Leeds in November, with more cities due to follow during 2018. Deliveries are made by courier firm CitySprint through its On the dot service. Orders made by 10am are delivered between 6pm and 10pm on the same day. ASOS Instant costs £9.95 per delivery.
Looking ahead, Beighton said: “Following this strong start to the year, we remain confident in our full year guidance and delivery of our planned investments in infrastructure to support our global ambitions.”
These investments will include new logistics facilities.The company delivers worldwide from fulfilment centres in the UK, US and Europe, offering a choice of next-day and standard (deferred) deliveries to homes or click & collect locations.
Apart from expanding ASOS Instant in the UK, the company also plans to offer more delivery options in European markets, including a day-definite Nominated Day Delivery service and more Click & Collect locations, during the current business year.
ASOS describes itself as “a global fashion destination for 20-somethings”. It sells over 87,000 branded and own-label products through local-language websites in eight markets (UK, US, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, Russia).
In the year ending August 2017, the company increased total revenues by 33% to £1.9 billion and shipped 49.6 million orders, a rise of 30% on the previous 12 months.
