Ultimate crave: free ASOS shopping for a year

The savvy marketing bods over at ASOS headquarters have come up with a series of very dangerous competitions for weak-willed shopaholics such as myself. Launched just under a week ago, Crave it? Save it. Win it. has been tempting online shoppers in their thousands to log on to asos.com and spend hours filling up their virtual shopping carts with dream purchases, in the hope they might be one of the lucky ones picked to win their wishlist.

Fill your online shopping cart

(Image credit: Maximum PC, via Wikimedia Commons)

Of course the chances of winning are minute, but the prizes just suck you right in:

• Starting small, the first round offered one winner a basket of goods up to the value of £300.
• For round two, ASOS upped the stakes to £500 for five victors (although, it was on the proviso that 25,000 people entered – which then happened, of course).
• And now, they are on to the grand finale, which will see one lucky so-and-so secure a jackpot of £1000 of goods, plus an outfit each month (for 12 months) up to the value of £200 for themselves and four of their most-prized friends.

As marketing plans go, it’s genius. It’s cheap as chips, with the only real outlay being £13,800 for the prizes, and yet going on my experience, the returns should be ridiculously high…

Why it works

Having spent over an hour selecting my wish list for the first round, and another day convincing myself I would win and picturing myself in all my lovely new clothes, the defeat was hard to take. (Other entrants also took it badly,  with the message boards getting increasingly bitchy about how the winner’s choices weren’t up to their standards).

But, ASOS saved the day and gave us all another chance for victory: cue another hour finding £200 of extra bits and bobs to add to my basket. Alas, the second prize eluded me too, and my Friday afternoon was spent overcoming the disappointment.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. I should get out now and avoid the final devastating loss, but I’m in too deep. So tonight will be spent finding another £500 of items in a last ditch attempt to secure the prize. But we all know what will happen: I won’t win and I’ll be left with £1000 worth of clothes and accessories sat in a basket, that I feel like I deserve. It’s funny, I hadn’t  realised it before this whole exercise, but I really do need a pair of brown brogues, a new watch and a lovely leather handbag.

And here is where ASOS wins. I’m going to try and be good but I’m pretty sure I’ll end up buying at least one thing from my wishlist, and if others do the same (looks likely going on the message board chat) that’s some serious wonga for the retailer. This is a very rough (and probably a low) estimate, but if you imagine that the 25k who entered round two buy just one item each at approx £25 – that’s £625,000 of revenue. Clever.

Time to Vote

Black buckled bag

Stacking bangles

Perfect jeans belt

Long-wished for brogues

Cute print gloves

Sandals for summer

Grown-up briefcase

Statement feather earrings

Pretty pearl necklace

Tortoise-shell watch

(Pic credits: asos.com)

So anyway, now the damage is done, maybe you lot can help me decide which my one purchase should be. Above are all the accessories included on my wishlist, as it stood at £500. And below is a poll for you to pick your favourite item. (Mum, don't just pick the cheapest!)

Oh and if you're as ASOS-obssessed as me, you can still enter the competition yourself until Tues 9am, here. And as I was kind enough to alert you, please bear me in mind when you're picking your four friends to win with you!