It’s always good when a prominent figure echoes what we’ve been saying for years – expanding into foreign markets using your website is a great way to grow your business, and is a low-risk option in these difficult financial times.
Named as one of the Online Fashion 100, Nick Robertson is the man everyone in online fashion is talking about, according to The Independent.
Robertson set up the award-winning internet fashion retail giant ASOS in 2000; originally named “As Seen on Screen” it was a place where customers could buy items they had seen in films or on TV, such as the diary room chair featured in Big Brother, or outfits worn by celebrities. The clothing products proved to be the most popular by far, and so the company gradually evolved into the largest UK online fashion retailer it is today.
Interviewed on BBC Breakfast News this morning about the company’s success, Robertson said:
“What’s really exciting for us is the international prospects now. We’ve done a great job in the UK, but the internet offers the opportunity to expand internationally very economically. We’re proving that, with our international sales up 156% over the last quarter. The UK is a tougher place to do business, that’s why we spend a lot of our energy and effort looking for new customers outside of the UK, which is proving very fruitful for us.
Yes, the UK is a tough market, but the world is getting smaller and we’re taking advantage of that.”
Having localised their website into French and German, as well as launching a US website last year, ASOS are certainly going about it the right way. We’ve helped several clients take this approach, and even the small initial step of localising a homepage yields impressive results – just take a look at our case studies for some success stories.
To find out more about how you can achieve international ecommerce success, just ask one of our friendly team – you can reach us at sales@web-translations.co.uk, or call +44 (0) 113 815 0460.
19 January 2011 10:39