Asos close to launching Click & Collect in Boots’ stores

Customers of online fashion retailer Asos will soon be able to collect their orders from Boots stores. The pure play merchant has recognised the massive demand from consumers to buy online and then collect in-store.

Boots represents a non-competing retailer with an attractive national store coverage that would be powerful to Asos. The company had also been in talks with Argos but this led to nothing as management at the fashion chain did not see much correlation between the two brands.

Boots is a very different proposition because it has a very broad mix of customers including the younger audience that makes up Asos’ core shoppers. The reason Boots is keen for a tie-up is that it would drive extra footfall. Its Advantage loyalty card has shown it that customers who use its existing Click & Collect service ultimately make additional purchases when they come to pick up their orders.

For Asos to have a click and collect service up and running before rival Arcadia (with its countrywide stores base) will be a massive indictment of the Sir Philip Green-owned retailer. Multi-channel retailing is here to stay and it is strange that a pure-play retailer has spotted this before a stores-based merchant and taken the necessary action.