Fashion e-tailer Asos enjoyed its most profitable day to date on Tuesday, in stark contrast to dire performances being reported by high street retailers.

Asos’s record-beating one-day performance came in the wake of a stellar six months – sales leapt 104 per cent in the period to September 30.

Chief executive Nick Robertson said that Asos’s success was due to a combination of factors. The e-tailer’s young fashion customers are proving ready to spend in the downturn, and bad weather taking sales off the high street.

Robertson said: “Young fashion is more resilient and expectations that online will be 10 per cent of fashion sales in the next two to three years is benefiting us.”

He emphasised that no retailer can be totally immune to the downturn, but said that “all things being equal”, Asos expects a very strong Christmas.

Robertson also said that more retailers were poised to start selling on Asos’s site as they realised they could do so without cannibalisation.

The e-tailer had 3.9 million unique users in September and registered users now number 1.83 million.