Research Document

Which side are you?

asos

pop-up shop Research Document

Which side are you?

Contents

Introduction Methodology Chapter 1 - Pop-up shops 1.1- Why are pop-up shops so successful 1.2-Other companies that have used pop-up shops 1.3- Five reasons why to create a pop-up shop 1.4-Why is a pop-up shop better than a high street store 1-5-Visual merchandising of a pop up shop Chapter 2 - Online shopping 2.1-Online shopping vs. high street shopping 2.2-Benefits of online shopping 2.3-Online shopping trends Chapter 3 - ASOS 3.1-Why ASOS is so popular 3.2-Why doesn’t ASOS have a high street store 3.3-How ASOS could benefit from a pop-up shop Chapter 4 - Target Audience 4.1-Who is the ASOS customer 4.2-Consumer behaviour Chapter 5 - Pop-up shop for ASOS 5.1-The idea 5.2-The location Chapter 6 - Analysis of Research 6.1-Questionnaires Bibliography

Introduction

The idea of the project is to successfully run a pop-up shop for online retailer ASOS. The pop-up shop will run for 3 weeks and will be set up in 7 cities, London, New York, Paris, Berlin, Manchester, Newcastle and Leeds. It is a chance for ASOS to test what the customer’s reaction will be to a high street store. ASOS is the UK’s biggest online retailer selling over 35,000 products and getting more than 9,000 customers a day, with most customers spending over £65. After opening ten years ago as a website designed purely for buying items that people had seen on celebrities, the brand has expanded to be the one of the biggest online retailers and has recently launched websites in America, Germany and France. Director Nick Robertson has never ruled out having a high street store but says that it isn’t needed at the moment. ASOS is such a successful company and adding a pop-up shop to the brand would only boost the companies’ sales. The aim of this project is to show that is it better for online retailers to open temporary pop-up shops rather than a high street store, as their uniqueness and popularity are because they are an online store. This project is going to explore ASOS as a fashion brand, understand why they are so successful online and why they haven’t needed to create a high street store. The project will look into the future of ASOS and how they are planning to expand in the near future by completing secondary research and primary research such as questionnaires, focus groups, telephone interviews and surveys. The research document therefore includes people’s personal opinions to back up the proposed idea.

As ASOS is a online retailer the research document will need to explore the online shopping trends and what has made online shopping so popular over the past 10 years. From this research it will aim to find the reasons why ASOS works better as an online retailer, how ASOS would change if it moved to the high street and how it compares to the high street retailers. Creating an ASOS pop-up shop will create an exciting new look for the company and will bring in many new and excited customers

Methodology

In the document there will be two types of different research methods. One being Primary and other is Secondary research. Although the two types of research are conducted separately and are different, they are both equally as important and will therefore form the basis of the project.

The primary research involves the collection of data that doesn’t already exist. It will be undertaken in methods such as questionnaires, telephone interviews, face to face interviews and focus groups. These methods of research will be able to address specific research issues that can’t be given from the secondary research. Another advantage of the primary research is that it is fresh new data that has been conducted specifically for this project. The first step towards the primary research for this project is to create a questionnaire. At the end of the research document there will be two different questionnaires, the first will focus purely on ASOS as a company and whether people agree that ASOS should move to the high street. The other is a questionnaire on pop-up shops that asks how many people have visited pop-up shops, what they expect to find at a pop-up shop and whether it is better for online retailers such as ASOS to set up a pop-up shop rather than a high street store. These questionnaires are reliable and as a new source of information they allow personal opinions on the proposed ideas. Once completed and analysed the questionnaires will show what is missing from the research and see what else needs to be found out, therefore a focus group will need to be set up that will involve around 6 to 8 people aged between 18 and 30 as this is the ASOS target audience and openly discuss how people feel about the proposed idea.

The secondary research is conducted differently to primary research, as secondary research involves summarising, collation and synthesis of existing research. This will involve finding relevant WebPages, articles, books and reports.

The secondary research will come from either internal or external sources and will be analysed to see what has already been done towards pop-up shops for online retailers and what people’s opinions are on it. The negative aspect of the secondary research is that a lot of what is published on the Internet can be false information therefore this could damage the research by issuing something that isn’t true.

Now there is a method behind the primary and secondary research it enables the research to be conducted in a structured format. There is a clear idea of what each section of research has to include, and the methods that have been chosen to use should provide relevant and reliable research.

Chapter One

Pop up shops Pop-up shops are the trend of shops that are only around for a short amount of time therefore popping up and down around the country. The pop-up shop is usually small and temporary and can attract much attention due to its consumer exposure. This research shows the increase in pop-up shops and how they have become so popular.

1.1 The research shows that the craze of pop-up shops seems to have increased during the recession as many

companies were finding that there is a lot of free retail space available and therefore they were able to rent space for a lot cheaper prices. Another reason to invest in a pop-up shop is the fact it can allow a brand to extend. If an online retailer like ASOS was opening a pop-up shop it would be a chance for them to put a face to a name and show their customers they aren’t just successful online. With many empty retail spaces in our cities and towns popup shops are reducing the visual impact of the recession hit areas. A city can also benefit from the pop-up shop as it can draw in a lot of interest from the public and the media, for example from the research into pop-up shops it shows that when Nike opened a pop-up shop in London it was so popular it is now a permanent feature.

“The main idea is to get people who are in the public eye to hand something over and that brings attention to it, and that brings other people to the store” 1

1.2 Since around 2007 pop-up shops in the UK have been on the rise, many companies are seeing them as a

chance to make money and draw in a crowd. Others are using pop-up shops to make money for charities. A popup shop opened in Meadowhall shopping centre in November 2010 named ‘Charity chicks’. Celebrities such as Sienna Miller, Peaches Geldof and Jamie Oliver made donations of clothes to the charity which supported runaway children. The pop-up shop ran for around two weeks and gave people the opportunity to buy some of their favourite celebrity’s clothes while making money for charity. Back in 2009 TV retail advisor Mary Portas had a similar idea by creating a pop-up shop that would draw in the media and make money for her charity, Save the Children. The pop-up shop in Edinburgh was selling designer clothes at bargain prices. Mary Portas said “This is a shop for everyone and we want it to be a place that will inspire Edinburgh to give. The designer bargains in our charity shop will be fantastic and the store has the potential to attract people from across the whole of Scotland.

We want to create a real buzz around second hand shopping and make the old fashioned charity shop a thing of the past”2 From the research into past pop-up shops it shows that there is a huge interest and they seem to be growing and growing from (Appendix Three) we can see that Alex Wershof manager of Camden’s pop-up shops explains that companies in London are now having to ask companies to complete a proposal, which will determine whether they can have a pop-up shop. Alex explains that they are looking for a company that are going to create something that has never been seen before, something that is unique and different, not something that everyone has seen a million times before. Alex explains that there are so many pop-up shops that if ASOS were to create one they would have to make sure it’s distinctive and something that will draw in a lot of attention from the media and the public.

Pop-ups are rapidly becoming more and more exclusive and popular, however it does seem that the main location for the pop-up shops seems to be in London and more of the bigger cities. From the research we can see in (Appendix Two) that only 33% of the people that took the questionnaire had been to a pop-up shop before. Therefore to get more people interested in pop-up shops the research shows that they need to be present in more cities around the country, as 12% of people didn’t know what a pop-up shop was. If these shops are going to be an aspect of our future town landscapes they need to generate as much media and public attention as they can.

1.Wayne Hemmingway 17/10/10 17.41 – www.journalism.co.uk/pressreleases/pop-up-charity-shop-clothes-hangers-hold-garments-donated-bycelebrities/s66/a541049 2. Mary Portas 30/09/10 13.56 - http://www.fundraising.co.uk/news/2009/11/02/mary-portas-open-save-children-shop-edinburgh

1.3 The research shows many different reasons why it would be beneficial for ASOS to create a pop-up. Here is a list of reasons why a company like ASOS would benefit from a pop-up shop.

1. ASOS as a brand has not had a pop-up shop before. A pop-up shop can allow the brand to extend, maybe they haven’t opened a shop before, then it’s a chance for them to test whether it will be successful or not.

2. ASOS can create sales. A reason to open a pop-up shop over a high street store is you don’t have to sell anything. Some pop-up shops can just be a place where people can see the products and learn about the brand, if the company is an online company maybe they can purchase products online in the shop.

3. Making a real shop window. ASOS have only ever used merchandising online. A pop-up shop would help them think about the basics and what would entice shoppers to enter the store. By showcasing the products offline, this may help improve online merchandising.

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Lula Magazine worked with Harvey Nicholas to celebrate their 5th birthday

1.4 The research indicates many positive reasons behind opening a pop-up shop but like most things there are

definitely risks and threats that companies can come across while launching a pop-up shop and this needs to be compared with the idea of opening a high street store. The SWOT analysis from (Appendix 10) shows that one of the biggest risks in opening a pop-up shop is high street stores, as they are a permanent feature they can therefore try and compete with the pop-up store by offering discounts and special offers that the pop-ups can not match. However, from the research we can see that since the recession the amount of high street stores have decreased, whereas the pop-up shops have increased therefore allowing us to believe that the high street stores aren’t in a position to be competing with pop-up shops. The research shows that it’s better than opening a high street store because it’s allowing a company to test the water before going ahead and opening a store on the high street. It seems like this latest trend is taking over high street stores as it’s a perfect concept for our hype-heavy society.

1 http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://fashionbite.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/lula-pop-up-shop-at-harvery-nichols. jpg&imgrefurl=http://fashionbite.co.uk/2010/07/02/harvey-nichols-launches-lula-pop-up-shop-pics-from-the-night/&usg=__2k0MKoLmLfd_KRe WJPBLZg8bFRE=&h=768&w=1024&sz=124&hl=en&start=3&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=6qR0Pyed_epF7M:&tbnh=113&tbnw=150&prev=/ images%3Fq%3Dlula%2Bpop%2Bup%2Bshop%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1

1.5 Pop-up shops seem to be winning the race with the high street stores and why not? It’s a way to grab attention and is a cost effective investment. The pop-up shops that have been researched show that the visual merchandising side to pop-up shops doesn’t have to be amazing. Whereas a high street store relies on the visual merchandising and the in-store design to attract customers. The pop-up shop concept has always been very simple as they already have the attention therefore their store can be very basic and it has to be if they are moving around the country. However, since the rise of the pop-up shops they have had to up their game by creating something a little bit unique. Pop-up shops allow a company to create a unique environment that engages their customers, enhance their brand experience and has the potential to generate a feeling of relevance and interactivity. Puma created a pop-up shop and used a shipping container as the location and this was part of the unique environment they had created.

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The shipping container provided a practical, lockable pop-up solution for Puma These Tracey Neuls boots are display using a basic string technique which is simple but effective 2

1.http://www.treehugger.com/lotek-puma-end.jpg 2. http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DsdjXHm4IO4/SZ-OXonxA-I/AAAAAAAAE4Q/9vRESyd6nQ8/s400/squshop-nshow-by-tracey-neuls-15.jpg&imgrefurl=http://freshlyfound.blogspot.com/2009/02/pop-up-shoe-shop.html&usg=__N5XLQBMVSsz3qt5UAPoob5NMnY A=&h=400&w=400&sz=31&hl=en&start=5&sig2=ZA9MQfeNXWp3PVxrLj8hxg&zoom=1&

Chapter Two

Online Shopping Online shopping took off around 1995 and 1996 when Amazon and EBay were created. In 15 years it has changed the way we shop and will continue to expand in the near future. The research shows that there are many different reasons why online shopping has become so popular, and many advantages and disadvantages of online shopping.

2.1 Online shopping vs. high street shopping A disadvantage for online shopping is that it is continuously compared to shopping on the high street. In the time that the Internet has been around, it has changed the way that most of us shop, most people assume online shopping is all about bargains and just see it as a way of doing all your shopping from the comfort or your own home.

Online shopping use to be only related to the upper class as the Internet was only available a select few people, but this in time has changed and now most homes have the Internet therefore internet shopping can become apart of everyday life.

“The customer experience at the store and Web site has to be extraordinary, and consistently so, in order for consumers to develop long-term relationships,” 1

Many people prefer high street shopping because they enjoy the experience of a day’s shopping, many people relate shopping to a day with a friend or a loved one, and to have a spot of lunch. Whereas online shopping can be seen as unsociable, therefore online retailers need to create an experience for the shopper so that they don’t believe that they are missing out on that special connection. Another point in favour of high street shopping is that it offers a level of guaranteed service that are often lacking in online shopping. At the moment you can find a better level of customer care at your local high street store than you find on many big online sites, and this virtual depersonalization will become a bigger issue as time goes on.

1. Jeffery Grau.21.22 04/10/10 – emarketers.com

2.2 Benefits of Online shopping Although High street shopping has many advantages over online shopping the research shows that there are also many benefits to shopping online. The high street store is gradually becoming a thing of the past with the many opportunities the Internet allows. It seems that in time everyone will be using the Internet to purchase whatever they need without having to leave their home. Therefore the research shows that it is undoubtedly convenient to shop online, for many people who have fast and busy lifestyles online shopping is becoming more suited to their needs and time restricted lifestyles. Another benefit of online shopping is that for many purchases it can be cheaper than high street shopping as the companies can afford to cut production costs dramatically and pass them on to their customers, therefore under cutting high street stores that simply can’t afford to lower their prices to match the online company.

2.3 Online Shopping Trends Trends of online shopping are very clearly indicated by the research. It is apparent that many consumers that shop online have been introduced to the system and have now made it a part of their everyday life. With the UK hopefully beginning to come out of recession, new and old online retailers are hoping to expand and rocket their sales.

They intend to do this by marketing new customers, making online shopping more appealing and upgrading the online shopping experience.

1 “Wealthy consumers are among a new breed of online shoppers who are not easily swayed by marketing hype, they feel empowered by the internet and diligently research online to find good deals and assess product quality.

And they feel entitled to a superior online shopping experience with rich visual content and white-glove treatment.”

If online retailers are ready to market new customers such as wealthy consumers then they need to look at online trends and distinguish how they are going to market them without becoming to needy. The major aspect for an online retailer is understanding your market and preparing for the likely peaks and troughs that will help to optimise the ecommerce success.

1. Jeffery Grau.21.22 04/10/10 – emarketers.com

Chapter Three

ASOS ASOS are the perfect company to open a pop-up for, as through the research it is clear that they have an established name for themselves. ASOS is an online fashion retailer that opened in 2000, today ASOS is the UK’s biggest online retailer. The inspiration came from an episode of the American sitcom Friends, after CBS received 4,000 enquiries about lamp that was on the set. From this ASOS has built a fashion empire, within 2010 opening websites in the US, Germany and France. So what is its secret of the success?

3.1. Why is ASOS so popular?

From the questionnaires and focus groups (Appendix 1) and (Appendix 7) its is clear to see that most people have the same opinions on ASOS, they are an easy, fashionable, quick and reliable fashion retailer based online. Some of the descriptions from the questionnaires (Appendix 1) described ASOS to have a large selection of products, different to something you would find on the high street, they also commented on the new free delivery and student discount. ASOS’s target audience is females aged around 18-34 so as you see can see from these questionnaires everyone is commenting on the same aspect of the company been simple and easy to use. Similar reviews have been made on websites and forums (Appendix 11) and (Appendix 12).

“The website is probably the best ‘shop window’ online. The creators recognise that people won’t part with £100 for a pair of jeans unless they are sure if what they are look like, so each product has multiple shots including close-ups, rear-views and now even a catwalk video so you can see how your soon to be bought item moves.”

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ASOS’s Webpage is continuously brought up in the research in (Appendix 6) Danielle Barry makes the comment “Its such an easy website to use, I think if I had difficulty with it once then I probably wouldn’t use it again”.

From this research we can presume this is why ASOS haven’t branched into a high street store.

ASOS.com is well known for its easy to use website, from the questionnaires in (Appendix 1) many people refer to the website has a plus point to the website.

1. http://www.launchlab.co.uk 13.26 14/10/2010

3.2 Why doesn’t ASOS have a high street store?

The reason for proposing the pop-up shop for ASOS is because it is a world wide popular brand, and is the UK’s largest online retailer but it doesn’t have a high street store. So from the research we need to see why this hasn’t happened and whether it could be something the target audience would like to see in the future. Many websites have made it clear that ASOS haven’t moved to the high street as the reason the company it so successful is because its online.

“People forget that clothes and jewellery have been sold successfully in catalogues, by the likes of Littlewoods and Freemans, for the last 100 years” Robertson (2010) Nick Robertson founder of the company expresses that he has no intention of writing off the high street, but he says statically at the moment there is no need to move.

“The generation that has grown up with the internet is very comfortable with shopping online” Robertson (2010) 1 From the research we can see that a lot of the customers agree with Robertson that moving ASOS to the high street isn’t important at the moment. From (Appendix 12) after a forum was opened on social network site Facebook about having ASOS on the high street many customers showed a negative response to the idea one blogger wrote: “I agree with the points made above; if there was a shop the rent price would be reflected in the prices of the clothes, so everything would go up. the sales would not be as fabulous, more people would know about it, and they wouldn’t be able to continuously add stock like they do online. so NO TO THE HIGH STREET, stick to asos.com :)” Many responses on the forum show that the ASOS customer wouldn’t be happy with a high street store, which goes back to idea of opening a pop-up shop to test the high street and how customers would react to it, as there are many customers that are not happy with the idea of opening a high street store. However, there are a few that would like to see ASOS in their local town in (Appendix 7) Eve Blackett says:

“ I think it could work and it couldn’t, it would be nice to have it on the high street because then it’s easier than buying online and getting the wrong items and so on. But then it wouldn’t work because I think ASOS is so successful because it’s online”2

These comments are definitely all needed for the research and it shows that there are positives and negatives to opening an ASOS high street store. Online stores continue to outperform retail high streets so why would ASOS risk losing money. ASOS have a strong customer base and have built this up in the past 10 years by giving them what they want, so far they don’t seem to be losing customers by not been on the high street therefore opening a popup shop might just show ASOS how there customers would react to this.

1. http://www.growingbusiness.co.uk/asos.html 13.41 14/10/10 2. http://www.growingbusiness.co.uk/asos.html 13.41 14/10/10

Many customers can concerned that ASOS could turn into Primark if it moved to the high street. Therefore taking away its uniqueness and likability.

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3.3 How ASOS could benefit from a pop-up shop ASOS is a company that targets internet savy 18-34 year olds looking to emulate the designer looks of celebrities like Kate Moss, Sienna Miller and Alexa Chung. They have built up a successful business around the idea, the website, the newness and the selection of clothing all without having a shop to do it in. ASOS could benefit from a pop-up shop as a pop-up allows the brand to expand offline allowing them to have new customers that maybe can’t excess the internet easily. From the research in this project we can also see that a pop-up shop would engage new and exciting customers in a physical arena that they have never had before.

1. http://www.agile-lab.co.uk/primark.jpg

Chapter Four

Target Audience 4.1 Who is the ASOS customer The ASOS customer is an 18-34 year old who is fashionable and internet savvy. Based on the questionnaires (Appendix 1) used in this research, the main ASOS consumers, 53% are aged between 18 and 23, with a small 6% been over 29. This research shows that ASOS is targeting the younger consumer maybe because of the lifestyle they live, an 18 year old usually doesn’t have any bills to pay and the money they receive from a job would be used on themselves in (Appendix 6) the focus group a comment was made by Eve Blackett: “what Emma said when she was young and working, the only thing she had to spend money on is clothes. So I think these websites like ASOS target young girls that like to spend their money” This shows that even the ASOS shopper can see that they are the main target audience. The research indicates that if ASOS were to open a pop-up shop the audience they should target is girls aged between 18-23. ASOS does sell men’s clothing but from the research we can see that 80% of ASOS shoppers are women with only a small percent being men. In addition, the marketing activity of ASOS focuses on disseminating information to more women than men. 500,000 emails are sent to females twice a week compared to 100,000 emails sent to males only once a week. ASOS understand their market and this is why they have been so successful “Younger customers defined predictions by continuing to spend despite financial uncertainty, helping the trader to a 35% rise in sales to £223m.”1 It’s clear from the research results that the ASOS pop-up shop would have to follow the same marketing techniques.

4.2 An online shopper In the last ten years online shopping has increased in popularity; however it does still seem to cater to the middle and upper class as in order to be able to online shop you must have access to a computer and have a bank account. Shopping has expanded with the growth of technology and will continue to grow in the near future and could cause problems for the high street stores.

“An influential factor in consumer attitude towards non-store shopping is exposure to technology, since it has been demonstrated that increased exposure to technology increases the probability of developing favourable attitudes towards new shopping channels” 2

The research into online shoppers and the ASOS target audience makes it easier to define what would be the consumer behaviour of an ASOS pop-up shop customer. From (Appendix 6) we can see that the online shoppers all have similar issues with online shopping, these being, paying for delivery and not being able to try the clothes on.

Eve Blackett made this comment: “oh yeah definitely I was going to order a present for my dad off, I think it was M&S and it was 5-7 working days with around £5.00 p+p I think that’s crazy when you can go the post office yourself and it takes around 2 days”.

From the research it is clear that this is an issue throughout therefore a pop-up shop for ASOS would take away this issue as people wouldn’t have to pay for postage and packaging, therefore pleasing the customer.

1. Susan Davis (2009) 2. Susan Davis (2009)

Chapter Five

The ASOS pop-up shop 5.1 The idea From the research that has been conducted it is clear that for ten years ASOS has successful run an online fashion store and hasn’t needed to open any kind of high street store. However the research in (Appendix 1,7,12) it shows that some of the ASOS customers would be willing to see a high street store created. The aim of this research isn’t to open a high street store but to run seven successful pop-up shops that will allow ASOS to see the customer’s reaction and decide whether it’s the next step for the company. In (Appendix 3) Alex Wershof explains what his company looks for in a pop-up shop application, which is something different that hasn’t been done before, and something that is likely to draw in an audience. The research shows that an ASOS pop-up shop would bring in a lot attention as many from (Appendix 1) 36% of ASOS customer want to see ASOS on the high street also in (Appendix 11) creator of ASOS Nick Robertson comments that:

“We have never written of a high street store but there just hasn’t been a need for it”

The main importance for the pop-up shop is to expand and create attention for ASOS, although financially ASOS doesn’t need a boost in sales, the research into ASOS shows that there is a portion of their customers that would be interested in seeing ASOS as a pop-up shop.

5.2 The location ASOS have never had to consider a location before as, as being online they are easily accessible to everyone. In (Appendix 12) Susan Wong says:

“I’m from Belgium, and I love British fashion, but nipping over the channel proves to be too tedious for shopping (euro tunnel, overnight hotel stay etc), so ASOS is a great & convenient way for me to shop, where I get to buy up-to-date clothing, it’s also more original than wearing something else than from the local catalogues, so definitely do keep ASOS online!”

Although many customers seem to be providing negative comments to ASOS on the high street, ASOS could change this by making sure that a pop-up shop would be convenient for all their customers. As seen in the research ASOS have recently launched websites in USA, Germany and France therefore its clear that they have a high level of customers in these regions meaning that these countries would attract customers to a pop-up shop.

To have an accurate understanding of where ASOS’s customers live, research into website traffic as allowed the project to show that 30.7% of ASOS customers are from London and 30.1% are from Leeds. After looking through the ASOS website traffic and the questionnaires (Appendix 1) it is clear that to be successful ASOS need to have a range of diverse locations these being London, New York, Paris, Germany, Newcastle, Leeds and Manchester. These seven locations allow many of ASOS’s customers to visit and also each city will create a different atmosphere for the pop-up shop.

Where people would like to see an ASOS pop-up shop Birmingham Dublin New York

Leeds

Paris York Edinburgh

London

Newcastle

Manchester

Leeds

London

Manchester

Newcastle

Paris

New York

Dublin

Birmingham

Edinburgh

York

From the questionnaire in (Appendix 1) it shows that over half of the ASOS customers would want to see a pop-up shop in London. London, Manchester, Newcastle and Leeds were the most popular locations therefore if ASOS want to please their customers its clear where the locations should be.

Chapter Six

Analysis of Research

6.1 Questionnaires

The research conducted for the project is all to distinguish whether ASOS will benefit from a pop-up shop. The pop-up shop will create many opportunities for ASOS, from all the research that has been conducted for the project it is important to have the opinion of the ASOS customer as if they don’t like the idea then it isn’t going to be successful. Other companies have created pop-up shops to get attention from the public and media, but ASOS will be creating the pop-up purely for their customers. Many forums and Facebook groups in the research (Appendix 12) show that there is a market for an ASOS high street store, and this research from (Appendix 1) analyzed the answers given and help to decide the main importance of the pop-up shop.

Would you like to see ASOS on the high street

Not sure No Yes No Not sure Yes

1.This first pie chart shows the response to whether an ASOS customer would like to see ASOS on the high street. A massive 73.3% of customers want to see ASOS make an appearance on the high street. The 20% of customers than said no to seeing ASOS on the high street all made similar comments that if ASOS were to be on the high street then it would take away the uniqueness of the brand and would lose its likability.

Do you prefer Online shopping

Yes

No

Yes

No

2.Another important question to ask the ASOS customer is whether they prefer online to high street shopping.

Therefore the research will then show if ASOS could be popular on the high street. Surprisingly 73% of the ASOS customers prefer shopping on the high street as they prefer been able to try the clothes on and see high street

Ever you ever been to a pop-up shop

Yes

Yes No

No

3. 73% of the ASOS customers in this research haven’t been to a pop-up, this makes it clear that is ASOS are to create a pop-up shop then they have to use their marketing tools such as emails, newsletters and magazines to educated the customers in what a pop-up shop is and what to expect at one.

The age of people using ASOS 29-over

16-18

26-28 23-25

19-22

16-18

19-22

23-25

26-28

29-over

4.The ASOS target audience is aged between 18-32, but from the 20 ASOS customers asked for this research it is clear that the largest amount of customers are aged between 19-22. Therefore it can be assumed that this will be the age range of the pop-up customer.

What collections would you like to see at a ASOS pop-up shop

Womens and Mens Womens and Childrens

Womens

Special Range

All Collections

Womens

All Collections

Special Range

Womens and Childrens

Womens and Mens

4.It is important that the ASOS customer is going to be happy with what they see at the pop-up shop, as many people will have to travel there. ASOS need to make sure they are going to get the best out of the experience 40% of the customers would like to see all collections this includes women’s, men’s, children’s, accessories, shoes, beauty products and more at the pop-up shop.

Conclusion

From the research there is a clear indication that ASOS haven’t ever created a high street shop as they have never felt that they had to. The questionnaires and focus groups show that many of the ASOS customers feel that a high street shop could spoil the brand and take away the uniqueness. However, other research does also show that they are a percentage of these customers who feel ASOS could benefit from opening a high street store. If ASOS were to create a pop-up shop they aren’t making it a permanent move they are just inviting the customers and media to experience what ASOS would be like if it made that step into the high street. The benefits of the pop-up shop is that ASOS can then see their future, if the response to the pop-up is negative then they know that ASOS will always be the online fashion store. However, a positive response to the pop-up shop may create the next step for the company’s future.

Word count – 4286

Bibliography

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Dowdy, C. (2008) One-Off: Independent Retail Design. London: Laurence King.

Lorenzo, C.Molla, A.Gomez, M. (2006) Consumer Behaviour in a online shopping environment: effect and interaction. Spain: Universidad de Castilla.

Parkin, G. (2009) Digital Marketing: strategies for online success. Middlesex: New Holland Okonkwo, U. (2007) Luxury Fashion Branding: trends, tactics, techniques. Hampshire: Macmillan Varley, R. (2001) Retail Product Management. Oxon: Routledge.

Agins, T. (2002) The end of fashion. Minneapolis: Quill.

Hammond, R. (2007) Turn your shop into a sales phenomenon. USA: Pearson Education Limited.

Chen, S. (2001) Strategic management of e-business. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Morgan, T. (2008) Visual Merchandising: Window and In-Store Displays for Retail. London: Laurence King Barreneche, R.(2008) New Retail. New York: Phaidon Press.

Din, R. (2008) New Retail. London: Conran Octopus.

Zappala,S & Gray, C (2006) Impact of e-Commerce on Consumers and small firms. Hampshire: Ashgate.

Mendelsohn, H (2007) The definitive guide to exceptional online shopping. New York: Hachette.

Okonkwo,U(2010)Luxuryonline:Styles,Systems,Strategies.Hampshire: Macmillan

Journals Li, P. (2000) ‘Consumer Decision Behaviour in Online Shopping Environments: Influence of Individual Differences on Choice Strategies’, Marketing science, 9(1), pp 4-21 Bashford, S. (2001) ‘Online shopper’, Marketing, 25(3650), pp 24 Fernie, J. (1993) ‘International journal of retail & distribution management’, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 11(6), pp 11-12 Anonymous. (2004) ‘Trend: Online shopping’, Incentive, 178 (2), pp 16 Anonymous. (2010) ‘Chase; Chase Paymentech Index Reveals Unique Online Shopping Trends’, Telecommunications weekly, pp 308 Partridge, C (2008) ‘Online Shopping: Focus’, The Times, 19/04/2008, pp 6 Josephs, K (2001) ‘Online Shopping’, Money, 30 (3), pp 137 Xinzhen, L (2009) ‘Online shopping spree’ Beijing Reviews, 52 (37), pp 26 Ashworth, A (2005) ‘ASOS.com: Final edition 1, The Times, 14/12/2005, pp 15 Anonymous. (2010) ‘ASOS’, The Times, 19/1/2010, pp 45

Magazines Internet Retailing magazine ASOS Magazine

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