Spare a thought for Asos.com techies: Topshop acquisition coincides with deadline for global retail system go-live

IT teams at Asos.com face absorbing massive stock and brand data in the company's £295m acquisition spree while at the same time finishing a global retail e-commerce system project. The day after the go-live deadline for the online fast-fashion retailer's new Truly Global Retail (TGR), the company announced the acquisition of …

[andy 103]

I have faith in them

I'm a loyal Asos customer and one of the reasons is because - aside from shit delivery companies they use (i.e. Hermes) - the process of getting stuff is absolutely flawless. Without wishing to sound like an advert being able to get free next day delivery and return anything over a month later - I think it's still about £10/year for this - is absolutely responding to the way people want to shop.

Whenever I hear of these "death of the high street" stories, I think, well if you can compete with this good luck to you. What Asos offer is what a considerable number of people want. That's why it works. It's not rocket science. The high street hasn't adapted to shopping habits very well. Lockdown will inevitably have helped online retailers but companies like this already had it nailed long before then.

I wish them luck and hope they don't screw it up because what they have now is about as good as it gets from an online shopping perspective.

[Tom 38]

Re: I have faith in them

I buy pretty much everything online - apart from clothes and shoes. As crap as going to clothes shops is (thankfully, haven't done much of that for a year..), 90% of what I try doesn't fit. Dealing with all of that online is a major ballache, even with an excellent retailer, you've still got to make lots of trips to the post office.

[andy 103]

Re: I have faith in them

@Tom38 That's why I quite like ASOS though. Because of the free delivery even so much time after you placed the order. You don't have to necessarily make a trip to the post office. I tend to do it when I'm passing whilst doing other jobs like food shopping. Knowing you have so long to return stuff puts less pressure on. You can also return it from places like petrol stations. They're pretty quick on refunds too so if something doesn't fit you soon have the money back to buy again. Like I said, this is what people are after, although appreciate it's not completely without downsides.

[NeilPost]

Re: I have faith in them

At this scale ASOS will be paying Hermes about £2.50 per tracked delivery UK wide which includes a base £20 of lost/damaged cover. Even as Joe Public you will get collected tracked and base insured for about £3.99 or drop off from about £2.79. All up to 1Kg.

That’s why they use them. Royal Mail are more expensive and more shit. DPD more expensive, probably less shit.

Hermes are about 99.9% no bother. It’s the 0.1% exception that’s a Fucking pain in the arse. Mostly lost stuff.

[Anonymous Coward]

Think of all the overtime

Jammy Dodgers!

;-)

[Efer Brick]

Assuming they don't return it