ASOS: Retail Innovation Through Supply Chain Optimisation

At a time when the retail sector is under increasing pressure from macroeconomic forces, companies must explore innovative ways to balance enhancing efficiency, profitability and customer satisfaction.

One of the ways they can achieve this is through supply chain optimisation.

With ASOS’ recent expansion of its collaboration with process mining leader Celonis, is the fashion giant blazing a trail for the rest of the retail sector?

The nuts and bolts of ASOS and Celonis’ partnership

Celonis works with ASOS to optimise its supply chain operations. Through the Celonis Process Intelligence platform, ASOS is connecting its end-to-end supply chain.

The goals? To provide full visibility, transparency and accountability – enabling reductions in process variation, increasing speed to market and improving the customer experience.

“ASOS is a prime example of how leading retailers can use Process Intelligence to transform their operations,” says Rupal Karia, General Manager for UKI and MEA at Celonis.

“With Celonis, ASOS gets unprecedented visibility into its end-to-end supply chain and can identify and act upon opportunities for improvement in real-time. Together, we’re unlocking the full potential of ASOS’ supply chain to deliver faster, smarter and more efficient operations at scale.”

Accelerating 'speed to customer' with a process-first approach

As a leading online fashion retailer, ASOS operates in a highly competitive and dynamic market where speed to customer is a critical differentiator. 

Leveraging the Celonis Process Intelligence platform and its game-changing object-centric process mining (OCPM) technology, ASOS can connect its product, inbound supply chain, logistics and outbound delivery & returns teams, providing a holistic, real-time view of the full supply chain process – from purchase order, to putaway, to products on the doorstep. 

This enables ASOS to gain actionable insights into key supply chain performance metrics, which will help drive faster, more reliable order fulfilment.

“With Celonis, we’ve connected our entire supply chain – from intake and inbound to outbound and returns – enabling teams to break down silos, streamline processes, cut costs and deliver the latest trends to customers faster,” says Laurence Moore, Head of Strategic Projects, Supply Chain at ASOS.

ASOS receives unparalleled insights from Celonis into key operational areas, including:

• End-to-end supply chain optimisation
  
  ASOS can now monitor and optimise its entire inbound logistics process, tracking thousands of SKUs and containers from purchase order creation to final warehouse placement. This has significantly enhanced visibility across ASOS’ supply chain, enabling teams to see how different processes impact one another.
  
  
• Returns and carrier performance management
  
  ASOS is leveraging Celonis to track third-party carrier performance and SLA adherence. This visibility is enabling better tracking of returns and optimising carrier performance management, strengthening its bottom line while enhancing customer satisfaction.
  
  
• Upstream and downstream operations
  
  By providing insights into product performance, returns and pricing trends, Celonis helps ASOS’ commercial and merchandising teams make data-driven decisions on vendor investments and pricing strategies, ensuring better product planning. Simultaneously, Celonis enhances customer experience and cost efficiency with the ability to have proactive communication – alerting customers to potential delivery or returns delays before they contact support, reducing call centre volume and operational costs.

Scaling process intelligence across ASOS

As part of its long-term digital transformation strategy, ASOS is exploring ways to expand Celonis across multiple business functions, including Purchase-to-Pay, Order Management, IT Service Management and Warehouse Management. 

With real-time process monitoring, ASOS can further enhance efficiency, reduce costs and continue delivering an outstanding customer experience.

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