Digital Business Management Report: ASOS's Online Value and eCRM

This report provides an analysis of ASOS, a major UK-based online fashion retailer, focusing on its key online value propositions (OVP) and electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) approaches. It begins with a company profile, followed by a discussion of ASOS's OVPs, highlighting accessibility, choice, customization, pricing, and convenience, and compares these with competitor BOOHOO. The report then evaluates ASOS's eCRM strategies, including the use of technology for customer interaction through promotional emails, social media, and targeted newsletters, also drawing comparisons with BOOHOO. The analysis concludes by assessing the effectiveness of these strategies in enhancing customer relationships and business value.

Running Head: Digital Business Management
Digital Business Management
Student Name
University Name
1

Digital Business Management
Contents
Introduction:...........................................................................................................................3
ASOS- Company Profile:.......................................................................................................4
The key online value propositions- ASOS:............................................................................5
Comparison of online value proposition of ASOS with its competitor BOOHOO:...........6
The electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) approaches- ASOS:.................7
Conclusion:.............................................................................................................................9
References:...............................................................................................................................10
2

Digital Business Management
Analysis of ASOS- Key online value propositions and Electronic customer
relationship management approaches
Introduction:
This document provides an analysis of key online value propositions (OVP) and Electronic
customer relationship management (eCRM) approaches of a major U.K. based online fashion
retailer, ASOS. The paper starts with an overview of the company and its operations. Then it
briefly discusses the basics of OVP and how ASOS offers its customers online value
propositions. These value propositions are then compared with another online retailer,
BOOHOO.
After that, this paper further evaluates eCRM approaches of ASOS, which includes the
discussion about the use of modern technology and the internet to interact with the customers.
These approaches are further compared with BOOHOO. In the end, there is a conclusion
regarding the effectiveness of these strategies.
3

Digital Business Management
ASOS- Company Profile:
ASOS is a major online fashion retailer based in the U.K. It was founded in 2000 and
currently it has online retail operations in more than 200 countries. The company targets
young customers in the age bracket of 20 to 30 years in the beauty and clothing sectors. It
offers a vast range of products across men's wear, women’s wear, footwear and beauty
products. It offers more than 80,000 products on different platforms including web portal and
mobile app (Asosplc, n.d.).
4

Digital Business Management
The key online value propositions- ASOS:
The online value propositions (OVP) represent a company’s unique selling point (USP) and
tell how its website adds value for the customers and its overall business. It explains the vital
reason for customers to choose the company over its competitors (Osterwalder et al. 2014).
According to Chaffey and Smith (2017), the 6C framework can be used to assess the
effectiveness of online value proposition of a website. Various questions on the basis of this
framework that can help analyse OVP are:
Content- How is the content of the website and is it optimised for the users?
Customisation- Is your website providing information in a customised manner and is it
providing a unique personalised user experience?
Community- Does the company provide a platform for its customers to have discussions?
Convenience- How convenient it is for clients to do business with the company in terms of
after-sales support, refund guarantees?
Choice- Is the company providing a variety of products, delivery options and payment
methods?
Cost reduction- How are the prices and deals offered by the website in comparison to
others?
ASOS offers online value propositions via easy accessibility, number of choices, great
customisation, competitive price and convenience.
It provides a lot of choices and easy accessibility to its customers as the company offers large
fashion options via the web portal, android apps and ios apps. ASOS sells more than 85,000
products including various vintage fashion items, and many of these products are not even
available at local retail shops. It also offers multiple in house brands like ASOS EDITION,
ASOS DESIGN and ASOS WHITE that are exclusively available at its website (Asosplc,
n.d.).
The company offers a great deal of customisation by having websites that are tailored to the
local population of different countries like Germany, Australia, France, Russia, China and the
United States. Its website is available in eight languages and it also provides various payment
options in order to increase the ease of use for its international customers. The company also
provides a personalised experience by clearly representing product segmentation based on
different body sizes like Little Mistress Plus Size and Glamorous Petite & Tall.
5

Digital Business Management
It also offers a price value proposition as it makes sure that its prices are competitive
according to the local market, by the use of global zonal pricing technology. The company
provides free delivery and free return options throughout the world. There is a loyalty
program known as ASOS Rewards, which allows its customers to gather points that can be
used for future purchases.
ASOS creates convenience for its international clients by offering express delivery services
like next-day delivery in many countries. The website also has a live delivery tracking option
for its customers to provide real-time information about the order’s current location, driver’s
name and delivery time. It has fully tracked drop-off options throughout the world at more
than 10,000 outlets and post offices.
To make shopping easy for the clients it provides product recommendations and there is also
a fashion finder platform to help customers know about the latest trends and attractive offers.
Comparison of the online value proposition of ASOS with its competitor BOOHOO:
ASOS offers a lot more choices than Boohoo as it sells third-party products alongside in
house brands but on the other hand, Boohoo only sells its own brands of clothing and
footwear. So, ASOS provides a better value proposition in terms of choices available for its
customers.
ASOS has an upper hand when it comes to accessibility and reach as it has a much stronger
global presence with properly customised websites for different countries but BOOHOO is
majorly present only in U.K. and it will need to invest heavily to provide that kind of value to
its customers internationally.
As compared to ASOS, Boohoo provides an advanced level of customisation and
personalisation to its clients by cleverly categorising its products in groups like festival shop
and date night. The search suggestions are also available category wise to better target
lifestyles of any particular demographic (Boohoo.com, n.d.).
6

Digital Business Management
The electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) approaches- ASOS:
In this digital world, technology has taken customer relationship management to the next
level with the advancement of information technology. The e approaches encompass all
forms of relationships with customers making use of internet and digital products. It has
made communications with customers more efficient, thus improving the whole process of
understanding, fulfilling and supporting the customer needs (Henneberry and Ryan Deiss, 2017).
ASOS uses eCRM to have a differentiated relationship with its customers, which allows it to
communicate with them more on an individual basis. This kind of approach can enable a
company to have a close relationship with their customers and to customise their products to
meet the consumer’s particular needs, hence increasing customer satisfaction (Nikou et al.
2016).
ASOS interacts with its customers in various ways and provides a 24x7 support via emails,
live chat offering and social media. Different online techniques it uses are- promotional e-
mails, targeted newsletters and social media presence.
The company uses smartFocus software to maintain customer data and it helps the company
target its customers effectively by profiling them accurately. This segmentation improves
customer interaction as it allows the company to offer its clients relevant and personalised
messages via emails and texts. It does this in various ways like sending its customers
discount codes on their birthdays, by offering them special shipping offers on the anniversary
of their first shop date, by sending them product links according to the local trends.
ASOS has a strong social media presence on various platforms like Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram. It provides customers with a lot of exciting content and quick support via these
platforms. This approach has helped the company engage with its clients in a manner that is
much appreciated by the young population. As a result, it has more than 8 million followers
on Instagram and more than 6 million likes on Facebook. It responds to the social media
posts swiftly and even shares the comments of its customers, thus making social media
interactions a lot engaging.
ASOS has done well with its eCRM approaches, but it still does not have an option for its
customers to contact it via a phone. The lack of this necessary option is considered by some a
hindrance when it comes to client interaction.
7

Digital Business Management
In comparison to BOOHOO, ASOS has an edge when it comes to social media client
interaction as it has a lot more followers across various platforms. But BOOHOO has a
customer support number that provides its customers with a dedicated phone number to
interact with the company whenever they want.
8

Digital Business Management
Conclusion:
This document explained the OVP that ASOS provides its customers and the manner in
which it represents its USP and adds value to its overall business. It is discussed how it
provides values to its customers by providing easy accessibility, a variety of choices, great
customisation and competitive prices. Its competitor, BOOHOO provides an advanced level
of customisation and personalisation to its clients, but it lags in terms of accessibility and
reach.
The paper also discussed eCRM approaches of ASOS, which allows it to communicate with
its customers on an individual basis with the use of intelligent software and various online
tools like promotional e-mails, targeted newsletters and social media presence. In comparison
to BOOHOO, the company better uses social media for its relationship management, but it
lacks basic options like dedicated customer service number.
9

Digital Business Management
References:
Asosplc. (n.d.). The ASOS Story. Available at: https://www.asosplc.com/asos-story.
(Accessed 28 March 2019)
BOOHOO. (n.d.). Boohoo’s website. Available at: https://www.boohoo.com. (Accessed 28
March 2019)
Chaffey, D. and Smith, PR. (2017). Digital Marketing Excellence. 5th ed. London, UK:
Routledge
Henneberry, R. and Deiss, R. ( 2017). Digital Marketing For Dummies. United States: For
Dummies
Nikou, S. et al. (2016). Electronic Customer Relationship Management, Customer
Satisfaction, and Customer Loyalty: A Comprehensive Review Study. International journal
of management and economics invention. 2(12). pp 1133-1144. Doi: 10.18535/ijmei/v2i12.02
Osterwalder, A. et al. (2014). Value Proposition Design. New York, United States: John
Wiley & Sons Inc
10