Founder and chief executive, Asos

Nick Robertson

The posterboy for online fashion in the UK was the obvious choice to top Retail Week’s list of the most powerful in ecommerce.

Asos has become a major fashion player, proudly standing shoulder to shoulder with some far more established high street rivals. And founder Nick Robertson looks in no hurry to give up the reins, this year taking his ambitions global.

With 37% of sales already coming from overseas, Asos has just launched US, German and French websites and is building its brand outside of the domestic market. Robertson is aiming for £1bn in sales in the next five years and is opening a £20m warehouse to facilitate this growth target.

Robertson is still the driving force and has little need or desire to get off what is a very fast ride. This year has felt like a real tipping point for Asos and how Robertson handles this next major stage of growth will be vital to help the business achieve its long-term ambitions and prove to other retailers that it can be successful online internationally.

There was speculation earlier this year that Danish young fashion group and investor Bestseller - which has been building a stake in Asos - may plot a bid for the company. But these rumours − and whispers of possible interest from Amazon − have been quashed.

If you ask Robertson if he wants to move on he will tell you that he is still having too much fun and there is a lot more that he and his team want to do.

His ever expanding, very well dressed workforce, are taking over more and more floors of its Camden head office. It attracts the best people not only from high street retailing but the media too, which is testament to the power of the brand Robertson has created, and the continued growth story that people want to be a part of. Similarly, its magazine has a wider readership than most fashion monthlies and brings in the biggest stars of catwalk, music and screen to grace its covers.

Its decision to offer free returns and standard delivery has also set it apart from many competitors, and changed consumer expectations of what an etailer should offer. And Robertson is also working to partner with high street retailers such as Boots to have high street pick up and return points to make shopping with Asos even more convenient.

The company has some big competition tapping into the online space with fashion giants Gap, Zara and H&M launching transactional sites in the UK and Europe within weeks of each other this year. This is unlikely to faze Robertson, who knows these businesses have a lot of catching up to do to get close to the breadth of offer Asos has and its range of young fashion and designer brands also continues to give it an edge. The more people who come into the online retail space the more shoppers will be encouraged to go online and Robertson knows this is also a positive for his business.

In the coming months, Asos will launch Marketplace for customers and smaller brands or designers to sell their clothes. It hopes to be more three dimensional than traditional marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay, with customers encouraged to promote their clothes being worn rather than photographed on a hanger, and a real community feel is being built around the site.

Fashion Finder, which pulls in fashion from all over the world, is being built, and a mobile site is expected to launch soon.

Not everything has gone smoothly for the retailer. It is pulling out of kidswear at the end of this year, which has not taken off as the etailer would have liked, and last year Robertson admitted being a little over cautious meaning there was not always enough stock of its most popular items.

However, this year Robertson has been a lot more bullish and remains the king of UK online retailing.

 

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