A London-based online fashion and beauty retailer, founded in 2000, that sells its own label and more than 850 other brands to customers in almost every country.
ASOS is an online-only fashion and beauty shop. Its website sells clothes, shoes, accessories, beauty products and gifts, including its own ranges and more than 850 other brands, and it delivers to customers in 196 countries. It also runs a marketplace, launched in November 2010, where small independent sellers can offer their products to ASOS shoppers. In 2021 it added the Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT brands to its range, so those names now sit alongside its own label.
The company started on 3 June 2000, founded by Nick Robertson, Andrew Regan, Quentin Griffiths and Deborah Thorpe. Its first name was AsSeenOnScreen and the idea was simple: let people buy things like the clothes they had seen on film and TV. In 2003 it shortened the name to ASOS, and in 2004 it launched its first own-label women's clothing. We could not find a formal mission or values statement in the sources we read, so we have not invented one. What the record does show is a habit of trying new ideas: Style Match visual search in 2017, an augmented-reality fitting tool built with Zeekit announced in 2018, and a body-shape visualiser called See My Fit in 2019.
ASOS's head office is Greater London House in Camden Town, London. In 2013 it opened an office in Birmingham, its first outside the South East, and it also has an office in Berlin. Its main fulfilment centre, where online orders are picked and packed, is in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, which employed about 3,500 people in 2013. Customer care is run from Leavesden in Hertfordshire. In 2015 the company said it had more than 4,000 employees and was the UK's largest independent online fashion and beauty retailer, though that figure is now several years old.
On culture, the sources we read give a mixed but honest picture. ASOS has run public campaigns such as #AsSeenOnMe, an Instagram campaign from 2017, and it has partnered with DPD on clothing donation and with Lush on a cosmetics collaboration in 2021. Like many big online retailers, its warehouse conditions have been questioned in the press and by unions, in 2016 and 2020; the company disputed those claims, and the local council found it was complying with safety rules in 2020. As a student, it is fair to read both sides before forming a view.
A company like ASOS employs many kinds of people. In London and Birmingham there are buyers and merchandisers who choose and plan what is sold, designers for the own-label ranges, photographers and content teams, marketing staff, and technology teams who build the app and website. In Barnsley and Leavesden there are warehouse, logistics and customer-care roles. If you enjoy fashion, data or technology, it is worth looking at how the different teams fit together before deciding where you would like to start.
Website: www.asos.com
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