Zooming sales for web giants
ASOS AND JUST EAT IN LOCKDOWN BOOST
TWO online businesses benefiting from the coronavirus turmoil revealed a surge in sales yesterday.
Internet fashion firm ASOS posted record results, despite lockdowns denting demand for going-out clothes.
Meanwhile, the owner of food-to-go app Just Eat said UK households ordered a whopping 46.4 million takeaways in the three months to the end of September.
The two businesses are among the few that have seen rocketing trade as people remain wary of venturing out.
ASOS, founded in 2000, targets fashion conscious 20-somethings.
Sales leapt by a fifth to almost £3.2billion in the year to September. Cost cutting and a drop in returned items from its 23 million customers helped profits soar 329% to £142m.
Boss Nick Beighton said customers had switched to keyboard fashion to “look good for Zoom calls”.
ASOS is building a fourth major UK depot in the Midlands, costing £90m, to keep up with demand.
However, Beighton warned: “We are worried about how unemployment might fall for 20-somethings globally.”
It is launching a new low-priced brand, with items from £8 to £28, to meet the “recessionary impact on customers”.
Beighton also warned lockdown had
led to industry-wide shortages of products such as trainers. ASOS’s share price, up 46% in the year to date, dived 10% yesterday.
Elsewhere, delivery firm Just Eat Takeaway.com said more families were opting to eat in amid the Covid-19 second wave.
Orders globally rose 46% to 151 million in the three months to September 30.