Amazon & eBay ALTERNATIVE: ASOS - The 2nd Biggest Fashion Marketplace in the WORLD!

Posted by Big Brand Wholesale.com on 10th Apr 2020

ASOS is an online selling site that is surprisingly the 2nd BIGGEST fashion marketplace in the world! Can you believe that?! It’s true! With 77 MILLION visitors a month it beats PoshMark by almost DOUBLE!

For reference, Amazon gets 5.7 BILLION, eBay gets 1.6 Billion and Walmart.com gets 469 Million. BUT sites like NewEgg, Overstock.com, Sell.com and Sears don’t even come close to the traffic ASOS gets. (See the full list of the Top Fashion Marketplaces in the world at the bottom of this article)

With that being said, if you are a clothing seller (including name brands! ASOS Loves brand name sellers!!) then this is a site you really should consider. So, today we are going to discuss all the pros and cons of selling on ASOS. Let's start with the...

1. ASOS has GREAT reviews from happy buyers:

Obviously this is a HUGE deal. If shoppers aren't happy, they won't shop. If they don't shop, you don't sell!

2. And they have super successful sellers. In fact, one seller who goes by “For Mass Consumption” quit his day job to sell full time on ASOS

Mantas, another seller, also has a positive testimonial:

3. They welcome name brands!!!

There doesn't appear to be a traumatic "ungating process" with ASOS, which is definately a positive BUT if you plan to sell fake stuff, it isn't welcome there at all!

4. ASOS is a site for CLOTHING & ACCESSORIES, period. Yes, eBay and Amazon get insane amounts of traffic but what percentage of those shoppers are looking for clothing, jewelry or shoes? 10%? 5%? Personally, I buy pet supplies, work supplies and home goods off Amazon but I don’t buy clothing, so when you think of 5.7 billion visitors to Amazon a month, that isn’t really “targeted buyers”, that is just general traffic. But with ASOS, shoppers are looking exclusively for fashion merchandise. For a seller, this means you have very specific, targeted buyers that are looking for the same category you are selling in; this is exceptionally valuable.

5. LISTING IS FREE. The only costs are your monthly “store fee” and commission. We will discuss both of these in the “Cons” section of this article.

6. You may consider this a “con” but I am putting it in the “pro” category because I feel it is a great thing. When it comes to ASOS they take photos SERIOUSLY but, what I really love, is that photo style is 100% up to you.

Photos have to be good meaning “creative + quality”. This isn’t a site where you can take a picture of a shirt laying on dirty carpet with your foot in the picture. You don’t need to be a professional photographer but you have to genuinely put EFFORT into taking instagram-style images.

Your photos can be basic:

Or mega creative:

Your photos can even be crazy-fun:

7. One thing I friggin' LOVE about this site is the “Shop Local” option that allows you to view listings only from your country (lower left of photo below):

8. A MASSIVE PRO is that you are totally allowed to sell CUSTOMIZED merch. In fact, it is encouraged! This is a GREAT solution for damaged liquidations you get in. Make sure you read our totally fantastic blog posts How to Fix a Hole in Clothing and What to Do with Totally Damaged Clothing. These articles will really get you thinking about Customized Clothing opportunities!

9. Another cool feature is that your ASOS store can be linked to your social media accounts, so when you post new listings on social media people can come right to your ASOS and buy it.

10. If you need to take time off, you can keep your store up but turn on “Away Mode”:

Now it's time for your bubble to be burst... lets discuss the...

1. This is a worldwide marketplace so you will have to consider shipping internationally... I mean, you REALLY gotta consider it. International Shipping means filing customs forms. BUT… a BIG PRO, is that if you sell USA-exclusive brands you will likely have a LOT of international orders! If you're not familiar with international shipping, it's kind of a pain in the arse. You have to fill out customs forms that are EASY, but time consuming. You also have to deal with Customs which can greatly slow down the speed of delivery. Some countries, like Mexico for example, often have VERY SLOW Customs. We have had parcels sit in customs for 3+ WEEKS. Meanwhile the buyer screams at YOU because they want their merch and it's not like you have any way to make Customers work faster, so you spend a LOT of time apologizing for nothing at all; "I am so very sorry that Customs in your country isn't processing your parcel faster" and "I again apologize that Customs hasn't processed this parcel yet. We really wish they would get it done faster", etc . However, not all Customs suck. We have also had parcels go completely across the entire world in 4 days.

2. ASOS is a little expensive. A selling account is a store (they call it “boutique”) and it costs 20 Euros per month (=$21.87 USA as of 4.9.20). A lot of sites do charge some form of baseline fee. eBay charges for "eBay stores", I think Amazon has some similar crap and Sears smashes you with $39.99 a month. So a store fee isn't totally "out of the norm" but it sure is annoying when you are also paying other fees. I get it though, they have to pay to host all of your data, and hosting ain't free. If it makes you feel better, our websites costs us around $3,000 a month when you add in EVERYTHING we pay for (Smile.io loyalty program, MailChimp mailing list, SSL Security Certificate, Microsoft Email Hosting, etc). If you think of it like that, asking for $20 a month isn't the end of the world.

3. Additionally you will pay 20% “commission”. This is the same as “closing fees, final value fees, referral fees” on other sites. 20% commission makes ASOS more expensive than most other sites. Walmart, Amazon and Sears charge 15%, eBay charges 10% (plus assorted other fees) and eBid charges 3%. So 20% is def at the higher end of the scale.

4. You have to stock at least 15 items. I mean, I don’t know why you would even consider selling online if you plan to have less than 15 items, but on the other hand, maybe you have 5 items and a lot of duplicates of those 5, in which case you would need to add 10 more things to be in compliance. If you’re selling used stuff (“vintage”) you gotta stock at least 20 items.

5. They REALLY want your photos to be on a model. You can read their full photo guide: https://asos-marketplace-photoguide.tumblr.com/ However I have seen many listings on their site for items not on a model. Listings in the Accessories category do not seem to require models, so if you sell stuff like jewelry you don’t have to worry about it:

It looks like a lot of sellers take selfies, but the selfies are really nice quality (notice how 1 hand always isn't in the picture? It's probably because it's holding the camera:

If you want to do photos like this, it's pretty easy. We used to do it. Just set up a mirror in front of you, a nice backdrop behind you and put on your own fashion show. Just make sure you take 10+ images of each style so you can choose the best one. Hmmmm... maybe we will write an article all about tips and tricks for these types of selfies :).

6. Another con… kind of… is that ASOS does run sales that will automatically reduce the price of your merch… BUT… you will also pay reduced commission on the sale. Instead of 20% commission you will pay only 10%.

7. This could be a pro or con, depending on how you perceive it. If you *want* you can pay to have ASOS promote your store. The prices are pretty reasonable; $4-$6 for 1 day. In comparison, we pay $2,000 a month for promotion on TopTenWholesale, WholesaleCentral, eZilion and other listing sites then we pay $25 a day for Facebook promotions and another $45 for Google. With that in mind, $4 to $6 a day sounds like nothing!

Ready to get selling on ASOS?

Getting started on ASOS is basically the same as getting started on ebay. You need a Pay Pal account then you apply for an ASOS boutique.

Applying is SUPER SIMPLE. You can connect your Facebook to ASOS to make an account then click APPLY FOR A BOUTIQUE. When you register, this is the form you will be filling out:

Our overall rating for ASOS is going to be...

List of top 24 FASHION marketplaces in the world:

#	Name	Region/Country	Visits/month
1	Zalando	Europe	119.0M
2	ASOS	Global	76.3M
3	Myntra	India	48.0M
4	Poshmark	USA	41.8M
5	Dafiti	South America	30.5M
6	Farfetch	Global	23.6M
7	Lamoda	Russia	16.1M
8	Privalia	Brazil, Mexico, Italy, Spain	9.8M
9	Zalora	Southeast Asia	9.2M
10	Spartoo	Europe	7.9M
11	TheRealReal	USA	6.5M
12	The Iconic	Australia, New Zealand	6.1M
13	Grailed	USA, Canada	6.1M
14	Depop	Global	5.8M
15	Galeries Lafayette	France	5.1M
16	Tradesy	USA	4.5M
17	Rue La La	USA	4.0M
18	Vestiaire Collective	USA, Europe	3.0M
19	Jane	USA	2.3M
20	miinto	Europe	1.9M
21	Moda Operandi	Global	1.4M
22	Micolet	Europe	1.1M
23	Goxip	East Asia
24	Zilingo	Southeast Asia