Asos has struck a partnership with Secret Sales in order to sell its excess stock at a discount.
The fast fashion retailer will use the marketplace to meet its plans, set out at the time of its full-year results in October, to right size its stock portfolio.
Jag Weatherley, corporate transformation director at Asos, says: “We’re pleased to be offering Secret Sales customers access to Asos products for the first time. It’s been a huge effort from everyone involved to get this partnership up and running in a short space of time. We’re looking forward to seeing how we can develop our relationship with Secret Sales.”
In October the retailer reported growing revenues of £3.9bn but a bottom line pre-tax loss of £31.9m in the year to August 31 2022, and said that its operations needed to become more efficient after years of high growth. It said it would write off stock worth between £100m to £130m in order to reduce costs and to increase its logistical flexibility, while changing the way that it holds stock. It envisaged holding less stock in its fulfilment centres through steps including working on a ‘partner fulfils’ basis with more brands, while also introducing more ways to clear products earlier in their lifecycle. That, it said, would reduce markdowns and increase the proportion of full-price sales.
Asos will start to sell through Secret Sales with up to 1,000 products from its in-house brands including Asos Design, Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge. It then plans to refresh its inventory every fortnight while increasing the choice available.
The alliance launches initially in the UK, with all of the selected discounted items no longer being available on Asos as products will be housed on Secret Sales. Asos will fulfil orders placed on Secret Sales using its own infrastructure, from packaging to shipping.
Matt Purt, co-founder and chief commercial officer at Secret Sales, says: “Our focus is in helping brands and retailers deliver a long-term sustainable and profitable solution to clear non-full-price inventory, without having to compromise on margin or erode brand equity. We’re incredibly excited to be welcoming Asos to our Secret Sales seller community and supporting their long-term strategy for managing off-price inventory.”
Purt and Chris Griffin acquired Secret Sales in March 2020, since when they have moved the business from a flash sales website to a marketplace that specialises in enabling brands to clear their excess stock through a single channel. It now has 9m registered account holders and trades in the Netherlands and Belgium as well as the UK.
Asos is ranked Top500 in RXUK Top500 research.
