Online fashion firm to provide platform for Yorkshire talent

Marketplace will allow smaller, independent designers and boutiques to sell through the Asos website to two million active customers.

Asos chief executive Nick Robertson believes the initiative will boost traffic to its site and drive sales once it is launched at the end of this month.

"We are on the hunt for top Yorkshire designers," said Mr Robertson. "Following the decision to open our new distribution centre in Barnsley next year, Yorkshire is now our second home. It's great to support some local talent."

Marketplace will feature boutiques, vintage collectors, individuals and designers, whether they are established or undiscovered.

The website will be created and controlled by its users and all sellers, regardless of their size, will be encouraged to photograph the clothing and tell the stories behind it.

The Marketplace team will reinforce the editorial feel of the site with daily topical blogs and weekly trend reports.

Customers putting their clothes up for sale will be given advice from Asos's team on how to display their items to maximise selling potential and Asos has appointed fashion buyer Jemma Dyas as the Marketplace fashion scout.

Boutiques wanting to host a virtual stall will be subject to a selective acceptance process with the most successful applicants forming the first 100 Marketplace boutiques. A 10 per cent selling fee will apply to individuals for each item sold, with no listing fees or pricing menus.

Those who successfully apply for a boutique will pay 50 per month, which includes an account manager at ASOS, and a 15 per cent fee on each sale.

Caren Downie, womenswear buying director at ASOS, said: "Marketplace is an exciting addition to ASOS. It allows us to extend our offer and enables our customers to discover even more fashion online.

"Through Marketplace we can offer another level of support to emerging designers where they can access two million customers worldwide."

She said interest from applicants has been very strong.

Established in June 2000, Asos.com is the UK's largest independent online fashion and beauty retailer and offers over 36,000 branded and own label product lines across womenswear,

menswear, footwear, accessories, jewellery and beauty with approximately 1,300 new product

lines being introduced each

week.

Aimed primarily at stylish 16–34 year olds, it attracts over eight million unique visitors a month.

Asos has previously featured several Leeds-based designers including Aqua Couture, Love Our Stuff and The Kiss Principal.

Mr Robertson said Asos has a strong penetration in Yorkshire.

"Yorkshire has always been a key region for Asos as we have a loyal following of fashion-forward 16-34-year-olds in the region," he said.

Asos has said it has no plans to follow its rivals and introduce sharp price increases next year despite rocketing cotton costs.

The company has promised not to raise the price of its own-brand products.

Mr Robertson said this is because the group is growing so fast that suppliers are keen to secure the improved order levels it can offer.

"Because we're going back to our suppliers and increasing our orders by 50 per cent, we can negotiate hard on that basis," he said.

Next, the UK's second biggest fashion retailer after Marks & Spencer, has said shoppers face near double-digit price rises for clothes next year due to the soaring price of cotton.

Asos announced a 59 per cent rise in first-half profits to 7m in the six months to September 30 and said it is on track to

meet market hopes for the full

year.

Mr Robertson said that best sellers over the six-month period were aviator jackets, capes and party dresses.

DISTRIBUTION CENTRE TO OPEN IN SPRING

ASOS is to open a 40m state-of-the-art distribution centre

in South Yorkshire next May.

The group said the Barnsley centre is on track and is currently under budget.

"Barnsley is key to the success of our international expansion and I am pleased to report that this project is on schedule for commissioning in Spring 2011," said ASOS chief executive Nick Robertson.

He said that the warehouse, which will help to quadruple the size of the business over the next five years, will have an initial sales capacity of 600m. Fully fitted, it will give the group capacity for over 1bn of sales.

The centre will create 1,000 jobs.