Seller Blog
Advice, help and support for ASOS Marketplace sellers.
Students get selling!
As a student, there was definitely
a conflict between my love for fashion and my bank balance! I discovered ASOS Marketplace
during my second year of uni and with a wardrobe full of clothing (some still
with the tags on!) I knew that ASOS Marketplace was the perfect place to make
extra cash to fund my “fashion addiction”. I was amazed at how quickly my
clothes sold but I wanted to be a bit more creative, so I started selling some
of my own handmade jewellery.
I loved the feeling I got when making a sale -
someone had actually found your listing, loved it, bought it and was now
wearing it somewhere in the world. I loved it so much that by my third year of
uni, I knew that ASOS Marketplace was where I wanted to start my career.
Throughout my final year, I spent time sourcing new and vintage products and
selling the pieces online. I have since graduated and I am still focusing on
building my boutique and I really think that selling on ASOS marketplace during
my student years was the perfect time to do so. You are that stage in life
where you can try new things out and it proved a nice break from the uni work
too!
Clothes; I just love searching high and low for them and then finding
that hidden gem after a day of tireless rail-rummaging - what could be better?
Having finished my first year studying History at the University of
East Anglia, I knew it was time to pursue my somewhat subdued passion - and
even if it meant juggling selling with studying. I’ve had the inevitable “don’t
let this get in the way of your studies” lecture more than once but I know that
selling on ASOS Marketplace is going to aiding my studies.
Through selling on
the site I have learnt a great deal about managing my time and the dedication
required to run something yourself. I’m not going to lie; I can be a lazy one
sometimes when it comes to getting an essay done, so the responsibility of
having an online boutique will hopefully reflect in my studies! Also, the fab thing
about this is that it’s all online and therefore is accessible wherever and
whenever. So whether I’m on my laptop or on my phone, I can run and check in my
boutique.
Having a boutique
on ASOS Marketplace is definitely more lucrative and much more enjoyable than a
traditional Saturday job. I currently also have a job working at a call centre
but Marketplace is definitely more fun and rewarding.
Juggling college and selling clothing online has been a
challenge but it’s ok, you just have to be organised. I finish college at 4pm everyday and have to
be speedy with packing all my orders as the post office closes at 5pm!
After
getting all my orders sent out I reply to customer emails and check my twitter
page – I’ve learnt that customer service is key in developing a business. I am
doing Business, Economics and Finance at college and the skills I have learnt
with selling and dealing with customers has helped me with my studies.
Next year at college there is an optional extended project which would have me
writing an essay about Modern Fairytale Club and presenting a t-shirt design.
By completing this project I will gain extra UCAS points and this in turn will
help me with my University application, so I can definitely say that selling on
ASOS Marketplace has helped me in more ways than one!
My name is Kimberley and I’m currently a Maths student at
the University of Surrey. Selling on ASOS Marketplace has given me the
opportunity to see what it’s like to be involved in fashion retail. My
responsibilities include photographing all the items I sell, organising postage
and deliveries and solving any queries/problems with customers. You do have to
put in the time and work to if you want to make selling on ASOS Marketplace a
success; but when exams come up I put selling to the backburner, however site
allows you to go back and pick up from where you left off allowing you to manage/edit
you items as you wish. Having the responsibility of making sure the customer is
satisfied is also a skill I’ve learnt from this process, as the last thing you
want is all your items to be refunded. Then, of course, the financial benefits
of selling have been great, as before I was always finding myself out of a few
bob!
Xx Boutique was formed the summer my friend and I completed
our degree and left university to enter the ‘real world’. It was our love for
fashion that sparked the idea, and the realisation that together we made the
perfect fit for a successful boutique. Grace graduated with a Fashion Buying
degree from Manchester Metropolitan University, and I completed a Marketing
degree at Lancaster University, which we felt complimented each other
perfectly.
Grace’s keen eye for fashion has helped define what products
ASOS Marketplace buyers would be interested in and it is she who is to thank
for all our great items. Grace has put all that she has learnt about finance to
great use by calculating cost, profit margins and all the other stuff that I
haven’t got a clue about... I do have my uses though! My degree taught me that
it’s useless to just shout about your boutique to any Tom, Dick and Harry and
that your time is better spent communicating to the right people. It helped me
understand consumers and hammered home the importance of having a consistent
brand with a personality and thus we both put as much personality as anyone can
handle into everything we do!
We were lucky when it came to money as we both put £100 in
each to buy stock and set up. About two weeks after being on ASOS Marketplace
we got a message from a retailer in London. She made a wholesale order for her
two boutiques, which covered our costs to that point allowing us to make a
profit from then on.
I am coming to the end of my masters in Marketing that I
started just under a year ago. I have spent the past 10 months studying for my
masters, carrying out full-time work placements and running Xx Boutique with
Grace. It has been tough to juggle it all, but by experiencing work with Xx
Boutique, I have been able to understand my degree more and it’s helped me to
go into my placements with a better knowledge of business.
My biggest piece of advice to anyone who is planning to set
up a boutique while studying at university is to make sure you have a real
passion for what you’re doing. I love making our items, photographing the
clothes, whacking them up on ASOS Marketplace and proudly marketing them. I
can’t wait for the day I cross someone on the street wearing an ‘Xx’ branded
t-shirt! Also, I know not everyone is as lucky as me, but doing it with my
friend has made it so much easier and enjoyable. As I’m sure Grace will agree,
when we sit together for hours studding blazers and crop tops it doesn’t seem
like work at all.
Finally, I’d like to stress how great it looks to future
employers to have set up and ran your own boutique while at university. It
gives you that extra edge against other graduates and people find it really
impressive, which it is!
