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Case Code: OPER140
Case Length: 10 Pages 
Period: 2000-2019      
Pub Date: 2020
Teaching Note: Available
Price:Rs.300
Organization : ASOS PLC
Industry :Retailing
Countries : United Kingdom
Themes: Operations and Supply Chain Management/Logistics & Supply Chain/International Operations/Distribution
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Botched up Operational Revamps at ASOS

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EXCERPTS

THE BUSINESSMODEL

 
The business model at ASOS was designed to accommodate two customer segments – consumers and companies who sold through ASOS.

ASOS’s website was its primary channel of selling apart from its mobile app and Facebook Store. ASOS had also sponsored the McLaren Formula One Team.

The ASOS website had video guides on topics such as how to shop on the site. It also published a monthly ASOS magazine and sent it to 475,000 select customers in the physical format and to 50,000 customers in the digital format. ...
 
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HICCUPS AT ASOS

ASOS operated as a low margin business. Hence, it could not afford any glitches in the business. It needed its warehouses to run smoothly and to their full capacity so that it could benefit from economies of scale. But ASOS had had its share of hiccups all along...
 

WAREHOUSE AUTOMATION CRISIS

In July 2019, ASOS declared a profit warning owing to the warehouse transition and automation activities it had undertaken . The warehouses in Berlin, Germany, and Atlanta, US, had been going through infrastructure and technological upgrades. The company needed these upgrades to support its vast and rapid international expansion. But the upgrades had gravely impacted stock availability, sales, and cost base...
 

WHAT LIES AHEAD?

Nick agreed that the company had failed in executing the upgrade plan. He said, “Whilst we are making good progress in improving customer engagement, our recent performance in the EU and US was held back by operational issues associated with our transformational warehouse programmes. Where we have been unencumbered by these issues we have seen robust growth and overall our customer momentum is improving with the business hitting 20 million active customers globally for the first time.”..
 

EXHIBITS

Exhibit I: ASOS Time Line
Exhibit II: ASOS Factories across the Globe
Exhibit III: Six Value Propositions at ASOS