ASOS is a British online fashion and cosmetics retailer, established in London in June 2000. The company was founded by Nick Robertson, Andrew Regan, and Quentin Griffiths with the original premise of allowing users to buy fashion seen in film and television, hence the name ASOS, standing for “As Seen On Screen”. It is a unique online only retail model focusing on young adult fashion trends, and proprietary ASOS brands. It has since expanded its product range and today offers clothing, accessories, and beauty products for both men and women. In addition, it provides global fashion destination for 20-something, offering cutting edge next-generation fashion trends. It went public, listed on the London Stock Exchange as ASC in 2001 and has a market cap as of IPO standing at £12 million. You can read more about ASOS on their Wikipedia page or the Bloomberg page.
ASOS operates in a highly competitive online retail market. Key competitors include Boohoo, another online fashion retailer that targets the same 16 to 30 demographic as ASOS and is known for its fast-fashion clothing. More information can be found on its Wikipedia page or Bloomberg page. Zara, a part of the Inditex group, is also a close competitor that runs both brick-and-mortar and online stores selling womens, mens and childrens clothing. Their business details can be found on their Wikipedia page for more information. Another notable competitor is H&M, a Swedish multinational clothing retailer that runs online and physical stores offering fast-fashion clothing for all age groups. More details can be found on their Wikipedia page or Bloomberg profile.
Web scraping can yield valuable insights when it comes to factual data such as prices, discounts, and product range on ASOS. For instance, trend analysis companies can scrape pricing data from ASOS periodically and analyze how prices fluctuate over time in response to various factors including changes in demand, raw material costs, and competitor pricing strategies. Additionally, by tracking the frequency and magnitude of discounts, retailers can glean insights on ASOS sales strategies and how they adjust these over the year. Thirdly, assessing the spread of the product range can reveal ASOS focus areas and how these shift in response to changing customer preferences. These data-focused use cases can support decision making for a variety of stakeholders including rival retailers, retail analysts, and investors.