Case Study: ASOS's Use of Technology and Social Media - SG1016

This case study examines ASOS, a British online fashion and cosmetic retailer, focusing on the impact of technology and social media on its business strategies, marketing activities, and business transactions. It explores the advantages ASOS has over competitors, such as effective digital marketing and skilled staff, and the risks it faces, including changing customer preferences and potential cyber attacks. The report concludes that digital technology is crucial for sustaining competitiveness and growth but requires effective risk management. Desklib offers a platform for students to access this and other solved assignments.

SG1016 Foundation in Digital Enterprise
Introduction .....................................................................................................................................3
Main Body ......................................................................................................................................3
1) Explore the effect of technology and social media on ASOS business strategies..................3
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Critically analyse the role of technology and social media on its marketing activities and
business transactions...................................................................................................................4
3) What advantages ASOS has over the other company it its business activities.......................5
4) What risks ASOS has compared to the other company..........................................................6
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7
INTRODUCTION
Digital technology has significantly changed the manner in which business organization
perform their roles and responsibilities. Digital transformation has significantly improve
profitability and provide opportunities to business organization to boost their growth and turn
consumer satisfaction into loyalty (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). In today’s business
world digital technology plays important role as it provides advanced and rapid innovation
opportunity to business and enhance connectivity access to trade and public services etc. The
present report include case study analysis of ASOS which is operating as a British online fashion
and cosmetic retailer. The report include discussion on effect of technology in social media on
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the selected company business. Along with the role of technology and social media on company
marketing activities as well as business transaction.
Main Body
1) Explore the effect of technology and social media on ASOS business strategies
Implementation of technology in modern business environment is crucial and core
business strategy which provide opportunity to organization to manage resources and utilise
them towards business growth by implementing information system and can have significant
impact in terms of reducing business cost. With the help of this organization can have advantage
of reduce business costs which will help them to assure more profitability. Furthermore it has
been analysed that social media is also having positive impact on ASOS business strategy, as it
helps in improving communication. With the help of this company can connect with consumers
and other stakeholders through texting, email, websites and personal digital application, that will
further help in improving organizational communication with customers (Li, Larimo and
Leonidou, 2021). It also helps in developing stronger relationship ties with consumers that will
benefit organization to retain time for longer period of time.
It has been analysed that information technology allow organization to duly reach to new
economic market and offer their product and services in the local, regional, national and
international markets in an effective manner. Furthermore it has been evaluated that technology
in social media also have positive effect on a source business strategy, as with the help of this
company can undertake better decision making with the help of consideration to outsource
business function to other businesses in national and international business environment. With
the help of this company can keep their operating cost low and can satisfy customers in effective
manner. Thus, according to the above mentioned analysis it has been evaluated that the
advancement of digital technology and social media has significantly transformed the business
strategies, as it provides them an important and effective digital marketing opportunity through
which they can connect with customers in effective manner. It offers company to have wider
base of customer segments through which they can assure long term growth and profitability in
industry. With the help of this organization can significantly assure providing maximum level of
satisfaction to customers.
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Critically analyse the role of technology and social media on its marketing activities and business
transactions
In today’s business world social media is playing crucial role which allow organization to
offer their product services in brand to customers. There are different type of social media
platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc that provide organization low cost tool to
utilise technology in order to take advantage of videos, images, posts, words etc to communicate
organization message to consumers. With the help of taking advantage of social media
organization can have benefit in terms of creating relationship with consumers and will also
benefit organizations to be consistent and differentiate company from others in the market
segment. Furthermore it has been analysed that social media is playing important role on
marketing activities of company as it benefits them to conduct cost effective marketing. Social
media marketing is one of the most important platform today’s business world which allow
organization to interact with customers with the help of regular Facebook updates etc. With the
help of developing these marketing strategies organization have benefit in terms of improve
responsiveness effective marketing through which company can engage with customers in
affordable manner. Along with this it has been analysed that social media marketing has
gradually involved in order to and one of the most important aspect of every individual life. This
is a great platform that will benefit organization to influence mindset of current and potential
customers that will help them to enhance overall sales and profitability in industry (Sivarajah and
Mahroof, Ebrahim, 2020). With the help of social media market companies can influence
consumers needs and wants by providing them appropriate information about the products and
services in attractive manner.
While if it is talked about technology it has been analysed that technologies has
dramatically evolved the manner and create highly competitive market segment, in this in order
to stay one step ahead of other competitors in the market segment it is important for organization
to understand the role of technology in business transaction and marketing. With the help of this
organization can assure greater competitive edge in market segment with the help of marketing
practices like SEO. Technology allow business organization to offer information to customers in
an integrated manner. With the help of this organization can influence consumers in attractive
way and can enhance overall business group and profitability in industry.
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3) What advantages ASOS has over the other company it its business activities
ASOS us operating its roles and responsibility as a British online fashion and cosmetic
retailer this organization was founded in the year 2000 in London and mainly aim at young
adults. The organization with the help of their website and taking use of digital tools and
technology offer products and services in different countries around the world (Alaimo,
Kallinikos and Valderrama, 2020).
Organization under take advantage of various digital marketing strategies which benefits
them to offer their products like accessories, shoes, clothing, beauty, etc. to existing customer
base and attract potential consumers. These digital marketing strategies are email marketing,
content marketing, influencer marketing, social media marketing and many more. Management
of ASOS can use social media marketing to promote their product and services. They can spread
awareness about their cosmetics items by posting pic, reels, videos, collage, GIF on their page of
social media platform. There are various social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook,
Tinder, LinkedIn and many more.
It is very cost or time effective strategy which will help the company to increase their
sales, customers base, number of viewers and other. In order to overcome competitive rivalry in
industry ASOS undertake use of attractive social media marketing and digital marketing
practices which benefits them to enhance their competitive rivalry over other rivals and also
allow them to enhance overall profitability in industry. They also used innovative tools to
Modify their page with unique colours, features, effects, font and style which drive the attentions
of public towards them and enable them to gain competitive advantage over competitors in their
respective industry. The another advantage of ASOS is they have skilled and professional
marketing staff members which easily adopt the new technology and trends in their working in
order to add value for customers to increase their experience. While on the other hand House of
Fraser is operating as a British department store and offer wide range of products and services
such as cosmetic, clothing, footwear, jewellery, perfume, toys to customers (Diba, Vella and
Abratt, 2019). Organization was founded in the year 1849 and headquartered in London, England
United Kingdom. It has been analysed that ASOS management with the help of this is having
advantages in terms of greater consumer reach, cost effective marketing with benefit
organization to assure more profitability and maximum satisfaction of customers.
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4) What risks ASOS has compared to the other company
There are various risks which ASOS faced while conducting their business operations in
dynamic market such as competitors risk, financial risk, less global presence, highly depended on
products, huge dead stock and many more. The main risk for ASOS is changing and dynamic
customers taste or preferences which creates problems for them to modify their product
frequently that leads to increase in their cost. As well as company sell their product at high cost
which reduces their customer base as another company sell similar product at low cost. The
another risk is financial risk which is related to the requirement of large amount of money to
purchase as well as implement new technology in their operations. It directly impacted the
profitability of company and they also not have other source of income. The main product of
company is cosmetics and clothing, and fashion industry are dynamic, the trends are changing
very frequently which required huge research and knowledge. (Qalati, Khan and Anwar, 2021).
However it has been analysed that as comparatively to House of Fraser ASOS invest more on
implementation of social media and digital marketing.
However this is cost effective marketing operations which allow company to generate
higher profitability but it has greater risk that can affect ASOS profitability. It has been analysed
that s is having risk associated to cyber attack security breach etcetera as compared to House of
Fraser that can create negative image of company in front of consumers. The effective
innovation and pricing policy of competitors can be the risky for ASOS to maintain their
position and customer base in market for long run. For that they have to invest on their research
and implementation of new technology which reduce their production cost and enable them to
sell their product at reasonable cost. The another risk for the company is it has less global
presence so most of the customers did not know about the product and services of ASOS which
leads to decline in their customer base and sales as compare to competitors. The company is
highly depended on their expensive product as almost all of its revenue is generated from
product. Also they have limited range of product and services which make people uninterested to
buy their product. In order to overcome from all these risk management of company have give
more focus and efforts on their productivity addition to this they must provide chance to their
employees to bring innovative idea for the development of company.
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Conclusion
According to the above mentioned report it has been concluded that in order to sustain in
this competitive business environment digital technology plays important role. This allow
organization to enhance growth and sustainability in industry along with offering maximum
satisfaction to customers. It is important for organization to understand the role of social media
marketing and digital technology, as this will allow them to sustain in this modern business
world. However, there are certain risks such a cyber attack, security breach etc. that can affect
company profitability. In this it is important for organisations to undertake practices like risk
management and implement them in order to undertake use of technology in effective manner.
References
Books and Journals
Agnihotri, R., 2020. Social media, customer engagement, and sales organizations: A research
agenda. Industrial Marketing Management, 90, pp.291-299.
Alaimo, C., Kallinikos, J. and Valderrama, E., 2020. Platforms as service ecosystems: Lessons
from social media. Journal of Information Technology, 35(1), pp.25-48.
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Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2019. Digital marketing: strategy, implementation &
practice. Pearson uk.
Diba, H., Vella, J.M. and Abratt, R., 2019. Social media influence on the B2B buying
process. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.
Ebrahim, R.S., 2020. The role of trust in understanding the impact of social media marketing on
brand equity and brand loyalty. Journal of Relationship Marketing, 19(4), pp.287-308.
Li, F., Larimo, J. and Leonidou, L.C., 2021. Social media marketing strategy: definition,
conceptualization, taxonomy, validation, and future agenda. Journal of the Academy of
Marketing Science, 49(1), pp.51-70.
Qalati, S.A., Yuan, L.W., Khan, M.A.S. and Anwar, F., 2021. A mediated model on the adoption
of social media and SMEs’ performance in developing countries. Technology in
Society, 64, p.101513.
Sivarajah, U., Irani, Z., Gupta, S. and Mahroof, K., 2020. Role of big data and social media
analytics for business to business sustainability: A participatory web context. Industrial
Marketing Management, 86, pp.163-179.
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