ASOS Marketplace has grown its sales by 690% in its first year alone (NMA). There is no doubt that having ASOS as a strong backbone has been invaluable for this success, but excellent utilisation of social media networking and marketing has also played a big part. 

Platforms:

Twitter @ASOSMarketplace

Facebook App                                                                                                                                              

Blog 

Impact:

Followers:  9124

Monthly Facebook App users: 20,000

 
Strategies:

The use of social media for ASOS Marketplace is distinctly different from that of other brands or stores. Most  importantly because it is not one single store and not one single brand, rather it is an important and powerful platform  for hundreds of vintage and boutique brands across the globe. In this respect, the apparently small number of  followers is misleading. A large percentage of these followers and App users are likely to be sellers themselves, rather  than customers. In viewing the Facebook App page it is evident that ASOS Marketplace do not utilise this platform themselves, instead the boutiques that utilise ASOS Marketplace link their own brands to Marketplace to show their own fans and customers where best to buy their products.

On the Twitter page, in contrast, the relationship between ASOS Marketplace and their boutiques is reversed. Marketplace advertises their boutiques, rather than vice versa. This is also used as a mode of communication between customers and ASOS Marketplace where any problems can be aired to the website and hopefully resolved. Furthermore, ASOS Marketplace link Twitter to the main ASOS Facebook page in which they link their followers to photo albums marketing either specific sales in Marketplace or particular fashions, for instance, recently, their favourite vintage backpacks.

Furthermore, ASOS Marketplace has an excellent blog that is linked to Facebook, Twitter and Google, which is updated weekly. The blog entries are either a lowdown on individual sellers or a roundup of current trends. Each boutique also has the capability to have a blog of their own on the ASOS marketplace blog homepage, all linked to the left hand side of the page. This is a great way of providing more information to customers, as well as to sellers who may be able to pick up some advice or tips from the potentially more successful boutique owners.

The social media usage of ASOS Marketplace is not merely the effort of one store, rather it is an excellent collaboration between a host of fashion lovers, makers and customers to create the vintage, boutique community which has enabled the huge success that ASOS Marketplace had during 2011 and continues to reap the benefits of in 2012.

Words by Lorna Greville, images courtesy of ASOS Marketplace

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