Boohoo.com

Boohoo was founded in 2006 by Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane, who respectively serve as group executive chairman and an executive director[3] and previously supplied high street chains such as Primark and New Look.[4]

Boohoo's core products include dresses and tops, with a selection of over 27,000 styles of clothing.[5] Boohoo has been criticised for promoting fast-fashion which critics claim comes at a cost to those making the clothes and the environment.[6] More than half of Boohoo's garments are produced in the UK, especially Leicester, London, and Manchester.[7] Boohoo buys 75%–80% of the clothing produced in Leicester. This was made possible when other retailers such as ASOS reduced the amount they sourced from Leicester over concerns about working conditions.[8] In 2017, the Channel 4 television documentary series Dispatches found that factories in Leicester supplying Boohoo (along with New Look, River Island, and Missguided) were paying workers less than the national minimum wage. Boohoo stated that the work had been subcontracted without their knowledge.[7] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Boohoo reported an increase in sales.[9] In late June, workers' rights group Labour Behind the Label produced a report that stated factories supplying Boohoo were not following to social distancing and forcing employees to work even if sick, claims that Boohoo denied.[10] This was followed by an investigative report by The Sunday Times which claimed to have found that workers producing clothes for BooHoo were paid £3.50 an hour, less than half the UK minimum wage for over 25s.[11]

In July 2020 Boohoo was accused of sourcing their garments from Leicester's manufacturers who pay less than the minimum wage.[12] Labour Behind the Label also accused Boohoo of sourcing garments from factories that did not protect staff from COVID-19 as well as general poor working conditions at their UK suppliers.[13] Meanwhile, Standard Life Aberdeen, an asset manager and a top 10 shareholder in the group, announced that it had sold most of its stake in the company a few days after the Sunday Times revelations. SLA said that after engaging with Boohoo's management team a number of times during the week, it found the online retailer's response to the allegations was "inadequate in scope, timeliness and gravity".[14] On 15 July 2020 a British Conservative Party MP said that it was 'shameful' that it took a pandemic for Boohoo to finally be taken to task for its workplace practices. Philip Dunne, chairman of the Environmental Audit committee, also said that the company had not met a pledge to sign up to the Ethical Trading Initiative which brings together retailers, unions and campaign groups to improve practice in supply chains.[15] In September the company accepted the findings of a report by Allison Levitt QC, which found that the allegations of poor working practices in the company’s supply chain were "substantially true", that its monitoring of the factories was "inadequate" due to “weak corporate governance”, and that its failure to assess the risk to workers during the coronavirus pandemic were "inexcusable".[16] In November 2020 it appointed former judge Sir Brian Leveson to provide independent ethical oversight.[17]

An investigation by The Guardian newspaper in December 2020 traced Boohoo's supply chain to factories in Pakistan where workers claimed to be paid as low as £47 a month, less than the legal minimum wage, and ordered to work to shifts as long as 24 hours without receiving full overtime pay.[18]

In January 2021, the company bought the brand and online business of the UK department store chain Debenhams for £55 million. The deal did not include the firm's stores or workforce,[19] leading to a predicted loss of 12,000 jobs.[20]

According to Chief executive Carol Kane, Boohoo can differentiate itself from its closest rivals, as all their clothing ranges are own-branded with average prices of £17 as of March 2014,[4] comprising 9000 clothing lines. With a primary focus on the 16–24 year old age group, it sells clothing to over 100 countries and as of June 2014 had seven major markets, including the UK, the US, and France. Stock is purchased in small quantities of between 300 and 500 items at a time, with repeat orders typically of 25% on those that sell well.[21] Customers can order items up to midnight for next-day delivery, including on Sunday.[22] Customer numbers increased by 29% throughout 2016–17, up to 5.8 million.[23]

As an online retailer, Boohoo utilise social media as an integral part of their marketing strategy. A social media manager was appointed in 2012, with all employees encouraged to assist the social media team by contributing messages and imagery.[24] As of June 2019, boohoo had 6m Instagram followers, 1.1m Twitter followers and 2.9m likes on facebook.[23]

Boohoo also owns boohooMAN, PrettyLittleThing, Nasty Gal and MissPap, all targeted at 16–35 year olds.[25] PrettyLittleThing was acquired in December 2016, with the retailer purchasing a 66% stake in the business at a cost of £3.3m, with the existing management team retaining the remaining shares.[26]

During the year up to April 2017, customer browsing from mobile devices accounted for 70% of total sessions, an increase of 4% from the previous year, with downloads of its mobile app across the United Kingdom, United States and Australia totalling around 2.2 million.[22]