Risks For ASOS

Three aspects of risks for ASOS as competition in the industry become fierce which are easiness of technology being imitated, competition looming and potential higher costs being an online-only retailer.
Firstly, most of the IT-based functions deployed by ASOS are provided by third-party companies, which means all other fashion retailers have the access to those services either. Technology can thus be easily copied, which results in offering similar experience for customers when they shop online. It made ASOS hard to position a unique value on customers in terms of shopping experience online. For example, in 2016, ASOS turned to Oracle and adopted to the computer software company's planning and merchandising solutions "to be more efficient
According to "ASOS and UK Retailing in the Cloud," Primark is the only fashion retailer in Britain that has not embraced online channel. Indeed, beyond Britain, fashion companies around the world offer online shopping platforms. ASOS can no longer take advantage of being the first and of the minority in being an online-only retailer. Also, the competition looms between ASOS and the other fashion and beauty companies because similar user experiences are offered. For example, a majority of fashion retailers, including ASOS provide email subscriptions, global payment methods, categorization by different aspects such as by concepts or gender, user-friendly search function, digital coupons on other websites, selling their products in other outlets such as the ShopStyle. Therefore, ASOS must standout by further differentiating their products. For example, ASOS can include a section of feedbacks or ratings by previous buyers for each product, so potential buyers can refer to the comments and make a better decisions. Popular retail companies which also selll fashionable items including the Amazon.com and Macy's have already incorpoated this function in their webpages. Similar to fashion retailer Pomelo Fashion, ASOS can specify which items are back in stock, the number of items left and offer the option to "Notify Me" for sold-out items. Besides that, ASOS can also list out the best sellers of the company for customers who find it hard to make decisions out of many products as reference. Since these IT-driven functions offered by ASOS are similar to those by the other clothing retails, ASOS must continue to improve user experience by adding functions such as the above mentioned ones that it lacks but its competitors have