Asos's new boss is continuing the job on margins

Crucially, despite ongoing discounting, keeping a big section of its clothing at full prices helped Asos to grow retail gross margins - this time by 40 basis points to 47.2 per cent. This, along with a 21 per cent improvement in group revenues, helped the company beat profit forecasts for the first half of the financial year. Better services such as the inclusion of free returns for all European Union-based customers, have attracted more shoppers to the site, with the number of active customers up 17 per cent to 10.9m compared with this time last year.

There's an air of positivity regarding the second half of the year, too. Recent changes in US import duty thresholds could provide the group with a cash windfall of £6m-£8m, while the closure of in-country operations in China - announced roughly a week before these results - will provide a similar cash surplus of around £3m.

That said, Asos still managed to end the first six months with a decent load of cash on the balance sheet. Mr Beighton says dividends or other forms of shareholder returns are "not the priority" at the moment, and investors have been vocal about management reinvesting in the business. Some areas of investment this year include technology and logistics, specifically the development of the group's mobile platform. Nearly 50 per cent of orders were placed via the brand's app in February, with 3.2m downloads in the first half alone. Further upgrades for the Android app are slated for the next six months.

Analysts at Numis expect pre-tax profits of £61.1m for the year ending August 2016, giving EPS of 57.8p, up from £47.5m and 44.3p in FY2015.