Asos has launched a new closeout website in the UK as it looks to shed inventory.
According to the British fast fashion site, it has launched “Asos Sample Sale” – a dedicated pop-up website for UK customers to buy a selection of recent Asos items at sample sale prices for a limited time only. Each item on the site is available to purchase for just five British pounds, a discount of up to 90 percent off from the full price when sold on Asos.com.
Visitors to the new Asossamplesale.com will now be able to shop a selection of over 2,000 womenswear and menswear products from Asos-owned brands like Asos Design and Asos Edition. Products made available for sale on Asos Sample Sale will not be available on its main website, the company added.
In a statement sent to FN, an Asos spokesperson said that the move is part of the company’s plan to “right-size” its stock portfolio. “This gives us another route to clear stock in an effective and efficient way,” the spokesperson noted.
Asos first announced its plans to right-size its stock portfolio when it posted its full-year results in October. At the time of the announcement, Asos said it closed fiscal year 2022 with 1.1 billion British pounds ($1.4 billion based on current exchange) of inventory, twice the size of its stock balance in fiscal year 2020.
But, in its P3 trading update issued last month, Asos reported that it’s on track to deliver a 20 percent year-on-year reduction in stockholding by the end of its current financial year, with inventory in P3 down by 15 percent compared to the full fiscal year 2022.
“We are delivering on our plan to turn the business around: to right-size our stock; to generate cash; to reduce our net debt; and to structurally improve our profitability,” Asos CEO José Antonio Ramos Calamonte said in a statement last month. “I am confident in the direction we are going. We have restored profitability in the period and made good progress in clearing through our inventory to generate cash.”
This move comes as Asos has steadily implemented new operational changes in its business in recent years including its tie up with Nordstrom, acquiring Topshop and investing in a full data strategy.
And, in support of future margin expansion, Asos said in October that it had successfully launched “Partner Fulfils” in the UK in partnership with Adidas and Reebok, now accounting for 11 percent of Adidas total UK sales and 10 percent of Reebok total UK sales through the Asos platform.
Asos said at the time that this program consists of both a “depth model,” whereby product that is out of stock at an Asos fulfillment center is fulfilled directly to Asos’ consumers via Adidas or Reebok, and a “width model,” whereby product that is incremental to the current range offered by Asos is fulfilled directly by the partner brands.
In September, Asos said that the Partner Fulfils program was further expanded to Europe in partnership with Adidas and Reebok across Germany, France, Spain and Italy.
