Asos international sales growth recovers

British online fashion retailer Asos reported a recovery in international sales growth on Thursday, helped by moves to make its prices abroad more responsive to exchange rate volatility.

Asos said total retail sales rose 22 percent in the four months ended Dec. 31, with UK sales up 25 percent and international sales up 20 percent, compared with growth of 27 percent and 11 percent respectively for the 2014/15 fiscal year.

Faced with slowing growth abroad due to the strength of sterling, Asos, which competes with Germany's Zalando, has introduced a pricing system that allows it to charge prices country by country to reflect fluctuating exchange rates.

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Chief Executive Nick Beighton, who took over last year from founder Nick Robertson, has said he wants Asos to concentrate its efforts and investment on its main markets of Britain, France, Germany and the United States.

Asos said it had seen record sales around the Black Friday discount weekend in November and recorded more growth in average order frequency, average basket value and active customers, up 18 percent on the year to 10.7 million at Dec. 31.

However, Asos, which is recovering from a tough 2014 when it issued three profit warnings and suffered a warehouse fire, said its retail gross margin slipped about 40 basis points as it cut prices and kept investing in warehouses and technology.