News


Boden: More markets, not more channels


More international movers


Asos says it will open local-language websites for France and Germany by the end of October. In a trading statement for the three months ended September 2010, retail sales at Asos soared 47 percent year-on-year. UK sales rose 21 percent to £43.7 million and international sales more than doubled, up 128 percent to £26.0 million in the second quarter.


Manchester-based sports-nutrition company Myprotein has expanded its online reach and launched localised websites for five European countries: Germany, France, Ireland, Italy, and Spain.


Hotter Comfort Concept, the shoe retailer/cataloguer, has begun distributing its catalogues in the US. The company has also set up a website to serve American customers at HotterUSA.com.


Client wins


Accessories retailer Tie Rack has gone live with its first-ever online shop. The new site, built by Advansys, allows Tie Rack to update it with new modules and bespoke functions when needed. The site also integrates with Prism DM for order fulfilment and customer services.


Lingerie retailer La Senza is concentrating on growing its social-media presence and appointed Diffusion to implement the marketing strategy behind it.


In an interview at this year’s ECMOD Conference, which took place on 6th and 7th October, Johnnie Boden, founder of the Boden apparel catalogue, said the key to his business’s future success was not opening up more retail stores, but rather expanding internationally. The business, which famously started out


with eight menswear items in 1991—and in a good week saw sales of £10,000 in the early days—is now debt-free, turns over more than £200 million annually and had profits of £28.7 million in 2009. It also operates two stores in the UK: in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, and in London.


Much of Boden’s growth in recent years has been attributed to its success in Germany. The company has been trading in Germany since spring 2007, and saw sales more than double to £16.7 million in the 12 months ended December 2009. The company is also active in the US, where


it experienced modest growth last year as trading conditions remained tough. Boden told delegates there were “problems” in the States that were “causing unease”. Although he didn’t divulge the nature of the problems, he did say that the Boden novelty was starting to wear off in America and that Boden “doesn’t give great service” across the Atlantic, adding that there are “so many things I feel we could be doing better.” However, despite this uncertainty,


Johnnie Boden


Boden said there were still plenty of people who hadn’t heard of the company and that there was “still lots to play for in the US and Germany”. When asked whether he would consider


opening more stores, Boden stressed that the company’s expansion will not take the form of a greater retail presence. It was “much easier to expand direct into Germany than to get the same level of sales from retail”, he told the room. As part of Boden’s planned international


expansion, the company now intends to fully launch its Austrian business, which was trialled successfully during the year. Boden also said that expansion to France was next on his hit list.


Fitness and sports clothing retailer TheFitCo has relaunched its ecommerce website. The new site was designed and developed by Screen Pages, using Magento.


Spirit of Nature, the recently relaunched organic clothing and eco-friendly gifts etailer, selected MNP’s OrderActive system to provide a back-office platform for its direct operations.


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Isle of Man-based online florist Post- a-Rose is using Options’ supply chain system for its back-office processes. Post- a-Rose also uses Options to capture and process customer orders by telephone, post and via the web. Eighty percent of orders are now placed online.


Catalogue e-business www.catalog-biz.com


The White Company selected SmartFocus to improve the flexibility of its marketing campaigns. The retailer’s in-house team can now more easily segment and analyse data, build campaign databases, access business reports and more.


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