So ASOS, formerly As Seen on Screen, has announced a 90% increase in year-on-year sales (£81m).

Does this mean they’ve got the market sewn up? Have they created a product/brand/service that fashionistas just can’t live without? And is this a web business that is simply untouchable?

Figures, numbers and a four pence increase in the company’s share price would suggest so.

Although ASOS is a business that has so far understood how web works and constantly adapts its brand, I would say there needs to be some caution when celebrating its success.

Yes, it has virtually come from nowhere to compete with bricks and mortar brands. Yes, it has picked up on a niche (celebrity fashion) at the right time and yes, it has grown into a beast that has fashion brands dying to be a part of it. But how long will it last?

I reckon ASOS is in danger of becoming the Yahoo! of the online fashion world. Not that Yahoo!, which is worth $44bn, is a failure, but it’s hardly Google - the first name in search.

Online fashion is still a growing market (as was search), and ASOS seems to be one of the first online only beneficiaries (as was Yahoo). But then will come along a product that’s bigger and better (just like Google).

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The size zero debate has been done to death, and eco fashion on the catwalk is yesterday’s news.

It looks as if the focus is going to be on models of colour. Or the distinct lack of models of colour.

Naomi Campbell and Diddy on the cover of Vogue October 2001

I was pleased (so to speak) when Naomi Capbell first spoke out about black models rarely being chosen for advertising.

According to The Independent on Sunday Carole White from the Premier Model Agency has said she has received briefs from clients stating “no ethnics”. Can you believe this happens in this day and age?!

Whilst many commentators will conclude the fashion industry is racist, should we not instead look to why they are - if such allegations are true - doing it?

Money makes the world go round. Advertisers want people to spend, spend and spend. If they’re finding that only white models inspire people to spend would we not then lay the ‘racism’ tag at the general public?

Afterall, if people were equally inspired to spend a product modelled by a black model as much as a white model surely fashion brands wouldn’t engage in a “no ethnics” practice.

Wherever the root cause of this problem exists there is undoubtedly a problem. Hopefully, this debate will lead people to think “do I only react to advertising which uses people that look like me?”

I would guess the honest answer would be uncomfortable for most, if not all, of us.

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Seth Godin recently published the five step brand lifecycle.

Does the cycle really end at ‘Who is Brad Pitt?’. I don’t think so. Nostalgia culture extends the brand lifecycle.

The music industry, using band reunions (Take That, New Kids on the Block) and cover versions to make money, and the fashion industry, which has seen an increase in sales of vintage clothing, both rely on nostalgia and the old.

Many of these brands never die, they just sleep.

So after ‘Who is Brad Pitt?’ it would be…

- I wonder what happened to Brad Pitt.

- Get Brad Pitt back.

- Get me someone like Brad Pitt, who was around the same time as Brad Pitt.

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So there’s a new series on BBC Three called Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts following six Brits living as factory workers to see if they change their attitudes to fast fashion.

We’re accustomed to cheap, disposable fashion and I don’t think that is going to change for a couple of years at least.

Just this morning I noticed an advert for H&M in the Metro for a £3.99 dress.

Today’s social conscience belongs to the environment. Recycling paper, using less carrier bags and taxing gas guzzling cars is today’s moral in thing.

Tomorrow’s moral in thing will be ethical fashion. In two or three years time high street stores, which embrace ethical fashion, will report better growth than those that don’t.

Ethical labels and stores, already engaged in building up brand awareness, will benefit most when this shift occurs.

But it’s going to be a while before that shift. Just today Primark is reportedly close to overtaking M&S as Britain’s top clothing store, proving we’re still in love with fast fashion.

Visit the Primark website
Visit the H&M website

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Have you ever wanted to buy something and thought ‘I’ll wait until pay day’? How great would it be if you could order items online that would be billed and delivered when you get paid?

That was one of my 5 tips for online fashion stores in my latest blog on E-Consultancy.com.

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NMA magazine held a get together at the Alphabet Bar in Soho for people working in social media to network.

Pic courtesy of NMA

Tony from Centaur media was making me and my OSOYOU colleagues Rebecca and Fiza laugh (above).

I also got to speak to Chris Osborne, who runs BoxedUp.com, and Hugo Burge from Cheap Flights. Both great guys who are passionate about the tech and new media industries.

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Jonathan Hirshler and I looked at how five campaign websites could increase their online presence.

See our findings at E-consultancy

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After attending the Converse Century party I thought I’d take a look at the online marketing efforts of the brand.

I had an article published on E-consultancy.com analysing the online PR of Converse’s one hundredth year marketing campaign.

Ironically my article, which includes my take on what appears in the Top 10 results of Google for the term “converse century”, is actually #1 in Google UK for that term.

Read the full article Has Converse marketed its Century milestone online? on e-consultancy.com

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I have done another of my regular articles for internet marketing and ecommerce website E-consultancy.com. This time I have given regular readers something a bit different to read about - Victoria Beckham.

The article is basically an analysis of the Top 10 results for the search term “victoria beckham” in Google and as we all know Google’s algorithm is based on what the web in general (news websites, blogs etc) is saying, so it’s a great indicator as to what Posh is best known for.

Read my article on Victoria Beckham’s online PR at e-consultancy.com

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If you haven’t heard of private sales where have you been?!

It’s a new and fast growing phenomenon when it comes to shopping online for designer clothing.

I have had the pleasure of working with two of the best known private fashion sales websites in the UK, koodos and Brand Alley, which is part owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News International.

I’ve just written an article for E-consultancy.com, an internet marketing and ecommerce website, explaining more on what I think makes these private sales websites work.

Read the article on private sales at e-consultancy.com

Visit the koodos website

Visit the Brand Alley website

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I did a Q&A with internet industry website E-Consultancy.com. They wanted to find out what OSOYOU.com was all about.

I’m really glad they asked about search traffic. It’s one of the achievements I am most proud of, as 92% of our search traffic is from natural search rather than PPC.

Click to read the article Q&A: Leon Bailey of OSOYOU

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