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ASOS plans to invest some £25 – £30 million at its Barnsley DC over the next year, having seen retail sales rise by 40 per cent to £754m for the year ending 31st August 2013.
Its profit before tax and exceptional items were up 23 per cent to £54.7million over the same period, with UK retail sales were up 34 per cent, international retail sales were up 44 per cent, and international retail sales accounted for 63 per cent of total retail sales.
Contributing to this result, the firm also gained bonded warehouse status in January 2013 and commenced building work on extending the 530,000 sq. ft. site by 140,000 sq ft, which will provide the storage capacity for the required unit volumes to exceed its £1billion sales target.
Over the same period its Barnsley warehouse reported labour costs down eleven per cent.
ASOS switched to a new service provider in August 2013 and launched a mechanised despatch sorter in October 2013. The firm also plans to install a mechanised picking solution during the year ending 2015.
And it upgraded its m-commerce offerings with an updated mobile site in April 2013 with upgraded iOS apps and a new android app during October 2013.
The retailer says it continues to review its medium-term warehousing requirements.
The firm is set to roll out its android and iOS apps in the USA during the first half of the new financial year, and is developing mobile apps to serve our other strategic markets.
In the report, ASOS revealed that it has focussed on its carrier network to improve delivery and returns services.
In the UK it extended the next day delivery cut-off to 9pm and introduced a 15-minute delivery slot on these orders.
Internationally it introduced a new express service for our Russian customers and reduced our express delivery lead-time by one day in 17 countries and our standard delivery lead-time by one day in the US, France and Germany. This was achieved alongside improved order tracking in the US and France, where 100% of our standard-delivery parcels are now tracked.
It also reduced returns processing lead-times by four days for our customers in France and Germany and have seen a reduction in customer contact regarding returns in these territories as a result. We introduced a next day delivery option for our French customers early in the new financial year.
It rlocated itsAustralian returns centre in March 2013, to reduce costs and provide capacity for future volume growth. During May 2013 ASOS completed the transition from an existing US returns processing centre in Atlanta to a new and more advanced operation in Ohio.
It is now fulfilling from returns in the US, and the new facility is the foundation for a full US logistics operation in the future.
ASOS has also established a logistics partnership in China and will shortly commence domestic distribution to our Chinese customers.
