ASOS's new Android mobile app is a dream and a curse for fashion shoppers

Despite having an iPhone app for more than a year ASOS waited until last week to finally unveil the Android smartphone version.

It's been a long time coming and as a regular ASOS shopper I was keen to try it out.

Read on to find out what I thought about the app, or for more information on this topic checkout our blog posts on ASOS's recently revamped mobile site and its approach to social marketing...

The homepage

When you initially open the app it immediately asks you to sign in, and as a frequent ASOS shopper I went straight for this option to happily relinquish more of my browsing data in return for a personalised experience.

I used the search function initially get to the full range of Converse products and was pleased to find that the app has an extremely fast predictive search feature.

There is also a huge range of filter options to help you drill down to the product type you want, more even than appear on the desktop site.

                      

Another neat touch is that when you're signed in the 'wish list' feature syncs up with the desktop and mobile sites, so your saved items are accessible across all platforms.

This may seem like a fairly minor point, but it's a useful feature and shows that ASOS is dedicated to creating an excellent customer experience.

Product pages

Product pages within the app largely follow the same layout as the mobile site, presenting a stripped down version of the desktop version with any superfluous information either removed or hidden.

They retain all the same features though, including photos, video (which isn't available on the mobile web), product recommendations and the 'shop the look' tool.

Product details are kept to a minimum but users can access more information using the rather small 'More info and care' button.

This button is quite easy to miss, though that's probably a good idea as you don't want to distract from the 'Buy' call-to-action, but the information contained within it needs to be reformatted as it's currently a bit of a jumble.

ASOS has neglected to put any spacing or line breaks in the copy, so product descriptions appear as a mass of jumbled text.

                      

That very minor issue aside, the product pages are well designed and I particularly like the large images and decent sized CTAs.

Shopping basket

The 'add to bag' process is slicker on the app then it is on the mobile site, as a large CTA appears rather than the tiny text link that you're presented with on the mobile web.

One of the largest buttons at the shopping basket screen gives you the chance to 'Move to saved', which is presumably trying to hedge against the fact that conversion rates on mobile are low so giving shoppers this option might help to secure a transaction on desktop at a later date.

                                     

The shopping baskets are also synced across different devices, so the horrible orange jumper I added in the app also appeared instantaneously on the desktop site.

Checkout

I'm going to stick my neck out and say that most people using the ASOS app will be repeat shoppers, so they'll likely already have an account set up.

This makes payment an absolute dream, as all your details and delivery preferences are already teed up ready to go. Therefore customers just need to enter the three-digit security code from the back of their card and hit 'Place order'.

                                     

It's incredibly simple and will certainly help encourage impulse purchases from existing ASOS shoppers.

One thing worth noting is that the checkout isn't quarantined, even though it is on both the mobile and desktop sites.

In conclusion...

ASOS has created an excellent mobile app that will no doubt do wonders for its mobile revenues.

Just as shoppers are used to turning to Amazon and eBay's mobile apps for fast, impulse purchases I can imagine ASOS's new Android app will help to increase brand loyalty and incremental sales.

The few problems I found really are very minor and can probably be easily rectified by ASOS's mobile team.

As one would expect it's a step up from the mobile site in terms of usability, with navigation being the biggest improvement. It also includes product videos, which are lacking from the mobile web version.

Overall ASOS's Android app offers an excellent user experience and will no doubt lead to me spend even more money on skinny jeans and Converse trainers...