December online figures soar for Asos

Asos, the internet fashion retailer, yesterday emerged as one of the major beneficiaries of the festive surge in online shopping.

Asos, the internet fashion retailer, yesterday emerged as one of the major beneficiaries of the festive surge in online shopping.

The company, which targets wannabe Sienna Millers with copycat celebrity clothing, left its bricks-and-mortar rivals standing with a 70 per cent leap in underlying sales over the Christmas period.

Official figures showed internet sales outstripped the high street in December. Non-store retailing, which includes the internet and mail order, rose 1 per cent on the previous month, and overall retail sales fell 1 per cent. The Office for National Statistics said non-store retailing sales soared 10 per cent over Christmas on an annual basis. Shopping over the internet accounts for 2 per cent of all retail sales.

The entire online shopping market, which includes websites operated by the likes of Tesco and Next, jumped 20 per cent to £3bn, data from the Interactive Retail Media Group research company recently showed. But Nick Robertson, the chief executive, said they could have done better had they not had to open three extra warehouses to cope with the spike in demand.

He said there had been pressure on the business, adding: "Our growth came at a price. We could have done a few more percentage points if we had run the business out of one warehouse instead of four." It has outgrown its original warehouse just two years after opening it.

The company said sales had accelerated since Christmas, up more than 100 per cent year on year during January. It predicted a strong finish to the year, and "operational efficiencies will also return as stock levels reduce".

For the nine months to 31 December, like-for-like sales at Asos.com rose 71 per cent to £8.9m. Total group sales were £9.4m. Its unique customers doubled in December to 972,000. The company, which is expected to report pre-tax profits for the year of £1.55m, had net cash of £1.7m at the end of December.