AO World

AO World plc
Public limited company
Traded as LSE: AO.
Industry Online retailer
Founded 2000
Headquarters Bolton
Key people
Richard Rose (Chairman)
John Roberts (CEO)
Revenue £384.9 million (2014)[1]
£(7.2) million (2014)[1]
£(9.6) million (2014)[1]
Website www.ao.com

AO World plc (formerly Appliances Online) is an online retailer specialising in household appliances. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

History

The company was established as Appliances Online by John Roberts (the current CEO) in 2000. John was bet £1 that he could not set up his own company by a close friend, whether the winnings were collected is still unknown.[2] It also sold kitchen appliances on behalf of Boots, Next, House of Fraser, B&Q and Iceland. In 2009 the company acquired the distribution business Expert Logistics enabling self-delivery of goods.[3]

In 2011 the company invested £750,000 into a video studio to produce video reviews for its Appliances Online and Appliance Reviews websites. The studio, located in Bolton, had kitchen sets, equipment and production and editing suites.[4]

In 2013 the company rebranded as ao.com[5]

In 2013 the company's Facebook page reached the milestone of over 1 million fans[6] and won a PayPal Retail award in recognition of its work on this platform.[7]

In February 2014 the company floated on the London Stock Exchange as World .[8]

In May 2014 the company launched a TV and Audio category

In October 2014 the company launched its first international website ao.de, which is based in Germany.

In 2014 the company won Retail Week’s Customer Service Initiative of the Year and at the Etail Awards it picked up gongs for Best use of Content, Best use of Social Media, Best Customer Experience and the PayPal Overall Award for Excellence.

In 2015 the company won the Retail Week Employer of the Year award.

Operations

ao.com
Web address ao.com
Type of site
E-commerce website
Launched 2000
Alexa rank
31,996 (December 2013)[9]
Current status Active

The company now occupies 50,000sq ft offices and is based in Bolton.[10] In October 2013 the company began selling small appliances and launched a same day delivery service.[11]

In 2011, the company signed for an initial 15,000 sq ft at Bruntwood's Riverside building in Manchester, employing 100 people, with plans to increase the number of employees at Riverside to more than 300 by the end of March.[12] In the same year, Expert Logistics, now a subsidiary of the company, signed a lease for a 360,000 sq ft Prologis warehouse, located in Crewe.

The company was also named as 63rd in the Sunday Times 'Best Companies to Work For' list in 2011, and received the award for Best Customer Service Operation at the 2011 European Call Centre & Customer Service Awards.[13] In 2012, the company was named 5th in the Sunday Times' list,[14] and in 2013 climbed to 4th, retaining this position in 2014.[15]

Also in 2014 the company ranked at number 6 in the Nunwood Customer Experience Excellence Centre Analysis and won Retail Week’s Customer Service Initiative of the Year and at the Etail Awards it picked up gongs for Best use of Content, Best use of Social Media, Best Customer Experience and the PayPal Overall Award for Excellence. It was also awarded best social customer service strategy at the Social Buzz awards. In 2015 the company was named as the Employer of the Year at the Retail Week Awards.

Advertising

The company launched a new advertising campaign on 3 May 2013 to mark the rebrand of the business from Appliances Online to ao.com. The first advert follows a fictional new employee called ‘Dave’ and his over-enthusiastic inductor on his first day at work. A further advert was aired showing ‘Barry Catchpole’.

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, February 06, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.