Asos has warned it is facing a sales slump of 15% in the year ahead, the latest in a long line of bad news from the online retailer. The picture wasn’t always this gloomy. In early 2021, sales were booming, and the company more than tripled its profits as people flocked to online shopping for comfy stay-at-home staples like hoodies, joggers, and leggings. That same year, it acquired the iconic Arcadia brands – Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT – and seemed to be going from strength to strength.
So where did things go so wrong? Everything from stocking unprofitable labels to an unseasonably cold spring has been blamed for Asos’s rapid decline. Indeed, Mat Dunn, its chief operating officer, said last year that it was a “broad-based phenomenon” with no one reason. But there’s a glaring issue that seems to have been overlooked: Asos is in the grip of an identity crisis.
