ASOS to launch online marketplace

ASOS Marketplace will allow customers to recycle their wardrobes. Small businesses and independent labels will also be able to sell their latest lines.

London - Fashionistas looking to give their wardrobe a makeover will soon be able to trade trousers, deal in dresses and barter on bags thanks to a new virtual marketplace from ASOS plc, the UK’s leading online fashion store.

ASOS is in the advanced stages of preparing to launch an online marketplace platform providing customers with a channel to sell their own clothes. In addition, small independent businesses will be able to promote their fashion products, as well as offering larger companies another sales channel for brands or to market excess stock.

Customers putting their clothes up for sale online will also be given advice from ASOS’s expert team on how to display their items to maximise selling potential.

It is anticipated that the ASOS Marketplace will launch later this year and the initiative is one of a number of projects currently in progress to extend the company’s offering to its fast-growing customer base.

Nick Robertson, Chief Executive of ASOS, said:

“This is an exciting extension to ASOS’s existing customer offer which makes perfect sense in today’s market. This is a sellers’ platform. We will start simply and continually improve the platform over time. Our sellers will shape its future.

“With this initiative, we are able to offer both individual and corporate customers an additional channel to sell their fashion merchandise in an environment, and in front of a customer, that is all about fashion.”

About ASOS.com
Established in June 2000, ASOS.com is the UK's largest independent online fashion and beauty retailer with over 35,000 products and 1500 new lines added each week. Aimed primarily at fashionably aware 16-34 year olds, the site attracts over 6.9million unique visitors per month and has in excess of 2.9million registered users.
http://www.asos.com
http://www.twitter.com/asos
http://www.asosfollowsfashion.com

For further information, images and samples please contact:

Susie Young
asos.com
Greater London House
Hampstead Road
London
NW1 7FB

+44 (0)20 7836 1284
press@asos.com
http://www.asos.com


Submitted by:
John Wood
+44 777 152 0001
jw@worldwidepr.net
http://www.worldwidepr.net
http://twitter.com/worldwidepr

ASOS to launch online marketplace

Brownbook is listed in Outsell Inc's Top 30 Companies to Watch in 2009

Brownbook earns its place on Outsell Inc's list for demonstrating that there is a new business directory business model that works and can lead to new pricing architecture

February 5, 2009 - Worldwide

NEWS FACTS

• Brownbook.net (http://www.brownbook.net) has been included in this year's prestigious Outsell Inc's '30 to Watch' list.

• In Outsell's "Information Industry Outlook 2009: No Guts, No Glory" report in which the 30 firms are listed, the reason for Brownbook.net's inclusion is "For demonstrating that there is a new business directory business model that works and can lead to new pricing architecture."

• Any company included in Outsell's 30 to Watch list is considered to be in the right place at the right time, where new competition and threats are emerging, and in tune with way in which the landscape of information delivery is changing.

• Outsell's analyst team selects 30 firms that are doing particularly innovative things - shaking up their respective marketplaces and challenging publishers and information providers to re-evaluate their activities - and publishes them in the list.

• Outsell Inc (http://www.outsellinc.com), the only research and advisory firm focused on the publishing, information, and education industries, every year, looks at firms that they believe will have an important impact on the publishing and information-provider community.
  

• The other companies in the list are: Apple, CNN, Elsevier, The Guardian, Thomson Reuters and Google BBN Ad Network, Blurb, British Medical Journal, CNN, Collexis, Critical Media, Data Explorers, Demand Media, Exact Editions, Flat World Knowledge, Google, The Guardian, Hakia, Hulu, IHS, LiveMocha, MarketTools, Nature Publishing Group, Public Library of Science (PloS), Safari, Thomson Reuters, Wood MacKenzie, and ZoomInfo.

• These firms exemplify Outsell's theme - No Guts, No Glory - in the leading stance they are taking. It is, indeed, an honour to be included in Outsell's 30 to Watch list.
  

Dave Ingram, Brownbook CEO

ATTRIBUTABLE QUOTES

Attributable to Dave Ingram, CEO, Brownbook.net

• We're very proud to have been recognised by Outsell as the company that is turning the online directory business model on its head. We're taking this as a nod from on high that we're doing good things.

• Brownbook helps a business get found all over the web by heavily optimizing its listings for all the major search engines. In this way, our business customers are benefitting from what we call bread-crumbing - leaving calling cards that direct enquiries to their website from all over the internet.

• Brownbook adopts the concepts of crowd sourcing, collaboration and peer production to offer a unique business model that doesn't rely upon advertising sales or large on-the-road sales forces and expensive call centres. This allows us to pass huge savings on to our business customers, as well as pay our members a generous lifetime share of our revenue.

• Brownbook is different, primarily because it grants users the freedom to update their directory listings immediately and as often as they wish, as well as add rich media like photos, videos, and widgets. Everyone shares in the site's success through our lifetime revenue share program.

BROWNBOOK KEY FACTS

• Brownbook is the free directory that anyone can edit - anyone in any country anywhere in the world can add, edit and review businesses in any country
• Business owners claim their listing to optimize it, get alerts and customize it with photos, videos, logos, widgets, and any additional information
• Business owners use Brownbook Bidgets (Business widgets) to easily add features like reviews, maps, and video on all their other web presences
• Unique business model that rewards contributors with a lifetime share of revenue
• Launched in the UK in May 2008 with 2.2 million UK businesses listed, expanded to USA, Australia and Canada in July 2008 with an additional 25 million records
• On web (http://www.brownbook.net) and mobile web (http://m.brownbook.net)
• Brownbook.net has a totally open ethos, with its OpenSearch API and Micro Formats that allow Brownbook.net data can be used everywhere by anyone.
  

USEFUL LINKS

Website: http://www.brownbook.net
Blog: http://blog.brownbook.net
Press and Images: http://blog.brownbook.net/press
Founders' Twitter pages: http://twitter.com/daveingram, and http://twitter.com/marc_lyne
Brownbook interview on Fast Company: http://tinyurl.com/ct5qby
Brownbook overview by Wikinomics: http://tinyurl.com/6omb2s
Dave Ingram interview on Intruders.TV: http://tinyurl.com/5vfos7

CONTACT US

Please contact Marc Lyne (marc[AT]brownbook[DOT]net) to arrange an interview and/or for additional quotes:

Marc Lyne, COO
Brownbook.net
London Road
Sayers Common
West Sussex
BH6 9HS
United Kingdom

+44 (0)208 1235 466
marc[AT]brownbook[DOT]net
http://www.brownbook.net

Brownbook is listed in Outsell Inc's Top 30 Companies to Watch in 2009