Fashion etailer Boohoo posts full-year results on Tuesday – it’s a business worth keeping an eye on, and not just from a clothing retail perspective.

Like Asos, Boohoo’s sales performance is likely to be ahead of many apparel retailers who also have bricks-and-mortar stores. It’s a business from which others can learn as the general shift to online shopping continues.

Boohoo listed with high hopes on the Stock Exchange in 2014, only to suffer the humiliation of a profit warning in January last year.

The retailer’s chiefs would probably admit that the process of running an IPO distracted them from the day-to-day, but after the earnings disappointment they pledged to work every hour to come good on their original promise.

That’s what they have done, and the retailer has again become one from which others can learn valuable lessons.

One example: Boohoo launches up to 100 new styles daily. That enables it rapidly to know what is clicking with consumers, or not. And with that knowledge, Boohoo can quickly reorder strong selling lines to satisfy demand.

The importance of being agile

It’s an example of that buzzword of the moment: agility.

In the world of communication through social media, shopping with a tap of the finger from the comfort of the sofa and a desire for near-instant gratification, the ability to adapt at a similar speed to how customers behave is a competitive advantage.

The challenge from the likes of Boohoo and Asos to more traditional retailers – even those that are strong multichannel players – is how to be similarly agile in a way that meets the needs of their customers today, and their next generation of shoppers.

Boohoo’s annual profit growth is not likely to mirror its sales growth. That’s because it is reinvesting in order to meet shopper expectations and to be match fit for the changes in consumer behaviour that will come tomorrow.

That ability to reinvest seems to be accepted more readily by investors when they’re dealing with a digital business than it would be in the case of a traditional retailer.

As well as remodelling themselves to display similar agility, perhaps some of the longer established retail names need to educate their shareholders to accept the necessity of investment?

Without it, short-term ambitions may be met but the longer term future may be jeopardised.

Home Retail posts prelims

Talking of fresh ways of doing things, Argos owner Home Retail also posts prelims on Wednesday.

How it’s doing is even more important as Sainsbury’s aims to pull off an acquisition of the business designed to enable it to take full advantage of multichannel opportunity.

As far as the deal is concerned, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.

But JS deserves credit for bravery of thinking that could be transformational. Retail has always been about the new, and new thinking is more necessary than ever.