ASOS, a British online fashion and beauty store, released a statement announcing plans to build a new warehouse in the United States on Tuesday, August 8, Business Insider reports.
The giant e-commerce fulfillment center will be located in Union City, near Atlanta, GA and will cost the company an initial investment of $40 million to build. The Union City warehouse will be half the size of ASOS’ main warehouse in Barnsley, England and large enough to house 10 million clothing and accessory items.
This plan is to help fuel US sales growth, which makes up 12 percent of ASOS’ total global sales.
In the company statement as released on the London Stock Exchange, the new center will “significantly enhance ASOS’ US customer proposition providing more cost effective, faster and more flexible delivery options.”
ASOS’ CEO, Nick Beighton, commented on the occasion, saying he believed the move to be a “major step forward” and “demonstrates the opportunity we believe lies ahead in [the US] market.”
According to Beighton, in the current financial year, the US market has “delivered 39 percent constant currency growth in the first six months,” with the financial year ending in Aug. 2016 seeing sales of almost $233 million.
ASOS brands itself as the premier fashion destination for 20-somethings, providing fast-fashion to millennials worldwide. ASOS sells and creates fashion and fashion-related content. They sell over 85,000 products both branded and own-label.
Nicola Thompson, ASOS’ global trading director, had the following to say about the company to Racked in May:
“We are the largest fashion label without a store, and that is because of the sheer volume of what we can offer. Shoppers come to us because they know there will be a product offering unlike any other. We have amazing combinations, and an unlimited amount of popular brands, and that is really a unique positioning within the market.”
ASOS has suffered allegations of exploitative contracts with their UK warehouses. This piece published by BBC News in Oct. 2016 details some of the accusations and the scrutiny ASOS endured from British MPs and campaigners.
To see ASOS by the numbers, check out this slideshow by Refinery29.
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