Asos.com > Reviews (162)

Asos.com is a website I regularly log-on to, not always to buy, but to see what's on there. I've been using it for about three or four years and it's the place I buy most of my clothes from. I originally wrote this review in 2007, but updated it in June 2009 as the website has been radically updated.

About Asos.com

Asos.com is a very popular clothing website that launched in 2000. Believe it or not it has now been around for almost 10 years! ASOS is short for 'As Seen On Screen', and sells clothes that are just that, have been worn by celebs or look like clothes that have been worn by celebs. The site used to be set out into three sections; menswear, womenswear and beauty (which also covers male grooming), but the website has grown in the last year or so to include a kidswear section, designer section, an outlet section (designer pieces at reduced prices) and a blog and community section. There is also a sale section which sells many items at very reduced prices. Asos sells designer brands (such as Firetrap, Miss Sixty) as well as it's own brand of clothing and the price range is quite wide. There is a huge range of choice, and you can buy pretty much everything including everyday wear, gifts, posh evening dresses, jewellery, perfume, jeans, shoes and belts. I would say that the website is aimed at people from the late teens upto the early-thirties.

You need to register an account if you wish to buy anything, this is easily done as you simply give your email address and home address. You can then login using your email address and password you chose. They will then send you an email newsletter every few days with the latest items added to the site, along with any special offers or competitions they are running. They also post me out a copy of their monthly magazine, for no extra charge. I'm not sure whether they do this for everyone or just the people who make quite a few purchases.

The website design has undergone a revamp within the last year or so, it used to be relatively plain in black and white but it now has flash on it's homepage to brighten it up. The link to the blog part of the website seems to come and go daily, but can be accessed directly by going to http://asostoday.asos.com. The community section is found in a small link right along the bottom of the homepage, along with the contact section. The menu is along the top, and you hover your mouse over one of the six options (women, men, beauty, designer, outlet and kidswear), a bigger menu will then appear to show you more options within these, eg. trousers, shirts etc. The items will then appear in rows of three on the webpage and you can click on each one to see more information.

To buy something, you simply click on the size and colour description that you would like and it gets added to the shopping basket. The items will then stay reserved for you in there for 2 hours, and if you don't pay for them by then they get taken out of your shopping basket. This is a bit of a blow for me as I will often place large orders and if I see something that I like, I like to keep it in the shopping bag for a few days as I will often see other things I like.

To improve the site, they could perhaps have a feature where you can add items to a watch list or something similar. Asos is Internationally friendly, and you can change the currency which is displayed on the website to display instead in Euros, US Dollars, Sweden Kroner, Norway Kroner or Denmark Kroner

My Experience

I have bought from Asos more than ten times, the first time I bought a ring and a perfume gift set. I was also sent a free magazine with this order and have received them in the post ever since. The second time I bought two dresses (asos own brand) and a pair of boots. I was also sent two sachets of the new Nivea anti-cellulite cream and find they will often send me samples as freebies, especially when I place quite large orders. I once received a full size bottle of body moisturiser as a free gift!

My boots were from the sale section. I did notice that they sold out quite fast, I was lucky as I bought then just as they had been put into the sale section. A few of the items I clicked on to buy from the sale section had sold out, this was particularly in the under £5 section so it's best to check regularly if you are a bargain hunter!

I also like to go on there to just browse and get ideas before I go shopping as they have such a big range of merchandise which gets updated regularly!

Postal Charges

I found the postal charges to be very reasonable, I was charged £3.75 (standard postage) for the postage of a pair of boots and two dresses. They arrived in a black Asos bag which can also be used to return items. Larger orders are often sent out in big boxes with the Asos logo upon the side.

Here is a full list of the postal costs, both in the UK and worldwide:

UK
Standard Delivery (3-4 working days): £3.75
Next Day Delivery: £4.95. Available Monday to Thursday, except bank holidays

USA, Canada & Europe
Standard Delivery only – approx. 4-8 working days.
Cost is subject to weight

Australia, Japan, New Zealand, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, India, Brazil & Mexico
Standard Delivery Only - approximately 8-14 working days
Cost is subject to weight

There is now an order tracking process so you can work out when to expect your parcel. I always buy standard delivery and although it says 3-4 working days it has usually arrived in 2 days.

Discount Codes

It is easy to find a discount code for Asos. There are usually codes offering 10-15% discount on this site: www.freeukstuff.co.uk and if you use a search engine you will find more. I have also seen discounts of 20% offered in fashion magazines. You simply type in the code at the till and it will deduct it from your total! However, this will not include any sale items or postage costs.

Returns Policy

If you are unsatisfied with your purchase for whatever reason you can return it with the black plastic container it comes in (you have to pay the postage though), as long as this is within 14 days of receipt. These will be refunded in full, or if you wish, exchanged. Some products you can not return because of hygiene reasons, such as earrings. These are marked with a + next to them on the website.

Overall Impression

I am very impressed with the amount of choice on this site and it is always the first place I look when doing online shopping. The prices are reasonable and the sale section houses a lot of bargains, although it sells out very quickly as the website is getting increasingly more popular!