ASOS shares have plunged by 30% after it issued a second profit warning in three months.
The UK’s online fashion retailer blamed the strength of the pound, which hurt overseas sales and forced it to launch a series of promotions.
International revenues in the three months to the end of May grew by just 17%, against 48% a year earlier.
Chief executive Nick Robertson admitted the retailer’s performance was “not what we had hoped for”.
The pound has risen 10% in value over the last year.
ASOS cut its forecast on profit margins to 4.5% from 6.5% on a sales target of £1 billion ($1.6 billion) for the current financial year.
ASOS shares have plunged by 30 percent after it issued a second profit warning in three months
That would imply a fall in profits to £45 million ($72 million) from a previous forecast of £65 million ($105 million).
ASOS, which achieves a high proportion of revenues from womenswear, recently launched a series of promotions.
These normally represent 3% of sales but rose to 8% in its third quarter.
But the discounts were not enough to offset the decline in its overseas sales, which account for 60% of the retailer’s total revenues.
ASOS warned in March that the costs of new warehousing in the UK and Germany, as well as start-up expenses in China would hit earnings.
Half-year pre-tax profits fell 22% to £20.1 million ($32 million).
Nick Robertson said sales in the three months to the end of May were strong, up 25% across the group and 43% in the UK.
But overseas growth has been slowing in each quarter for the past year.
US sales were up 17% compared with 59% a year ago, while sales growth across Europe of 37% compared with a 56% rise a year earlier.
For the rest of the world, sales slowed to a trickle of 1% compared with 38% the year before.
Nick Robertson said the result was a higher proportion of sales came from the UK and Europe, where margins are lower.
ASOS, which stands for As Seen on Screen, is targeting annual sales of £2.5 billion ($4 billion).
It reported total sales of £754 million ($1.2 billion) in its last set of full year results to the end of August 2013 a rise of 40% on the year before.
Its share price soared to 7111p earlier this year, more than doubling the company’s value on the year before, but has since slumped amid profit concerns.
Nick Robertson said: “Whilst our profit performance for this financial year is not what we had hoped for due to an unusual combination of factors, our accelerated investment in technology and infrastructure to support our £2.5 billion [$4 billion] sales ambition is progressing.
“We are totally focused on rolling out the Asos business model globally as the world’s leading online fashion destination for 20-somethings.”
Rihanna has won a legal battle with British clothing retailer Topshop over a T-shirt bearing her image.
Rihanna, 25, sued Topshop’s parent company Arcadia for $5 million over the T-shirts, which featured a photo taken during a video shoot in 2011.
The singer’s lawyers told the High Court in London the fashion chain duped fans and may have damaged her reputation.
They said the picture was “very similar” to images used on CD sleeves for one of her albums.
Judge Colin Birss ruled that a “substantial number” of buyers were likely to have been deceived into buying the T-shirt because of a “false belief” it had been approved by Rihanna.
He said it was damaging to her “goodwill” and represented a loss of control over Rihanna’s reputation in the “fashion sphere”.
Topshop’s lawyers had claimed Rihanna was making an unjustifiable bid to establish a “free standing image right” over use of her picture in the UK.
Rihanna sued Topshop for $5 million over the T-shirts, which featured a photo taken during a video shoot in 2011
The photograph used by Topshop had been taken during filming of a music video in Northern Ireland in 2011.
In a two-minute judgment, Justice Colin Birss said there was “no such thing as a general right by a famous person to control the reproduction of their image”.
“The taking of the photograph is not suggested to have breached Rihanna’s privacy,” he continued.
“The mere sale by a trader of a T-shirt bearing an image of a famous person is not an act of passing off.
“However, I find that Topshop’s sale of this T-shirt was an act of passing off.”
Justice Colin Birss did not make an assessment of any liable damages in his ruling.
Topshop said it was “surprised, disappointed and perplexed” by the High Court decision.
“There was no intention to create an appearance of an endorsement or promotion,” it said.
“We feel that the fact that Rihanna has shopped, worn and had a relationship with Topshop for several years appears to have been detrimental to our case.”
Rihanna has her own fashion line at River Island. Her first collection for the fashion retailer went on sale in spring 2013.
After First Lady Michelle Obama wore a red and white check dress by online fashion retailer ASOS.com last year it quickly became a sellout.
Now fashionistas who missed out stealing Michelle Obama’s style the first time round can get their hands on the dress again as it has gone back on sale today.
The cotton skater dress is back in stock and currently available to buy for the bargain price of £55 ($85).
Michelle Obama, who regularly tops lists of the world’s best dressed women, has worn the sleeveless dress herself on more than one occasion.
Then last August when Michelle Obama joined her husband on the campaign trail as he sought re-election, she opted for the ASOS number again, this time wearing it with a wider black belt and ballet flats.
As if endorsement from the First Lady wearing it wasn’t enough, ASOS got even further free advertising when an image of Michelle Obama while wearing the dress while hugging Barack became the most shared picture in history on social networks.
After First Lady Michelle Obama wore a red and white check dress by online fashion retailer ASOS.com last year it quickly became a sellout
Barack Obama’s campaign team posted the image that was taken over the summer on his Twitter and Facebook accounts when it was announced he had won another term as President, along with the caption “another four years”.
The president’ss online campaign manager told Time Magazine the picture was chosen because it summed up the “elation, relief and joy” they were all feeling at that historic moment.
The picture was then retweeted 816,000 times on Twitter shared more than 4 million times on Facebook – breaking records for both social networks.
ASOS was launched in 2000 with the aim of helping twenty-somethings replicate the style of the stars at affordable prices. Now more than a decade on, its success means they’re now setting the trends as well as following them.
