“We experience a fire in our warehouse tonight and fortunately nobody was hurt. We understand there has been substantial damage, but it’s too early to ascertain the extent. We will not be taking any orders in the meantime,” a statement on the brand’s Facebook page on Saturday afternoon read.

The website and e-boutique has since been pulled down and replaced with a message apologising for the inconvenience.

Witness Mathew Hanley told Fairfax Media smoke was billowing from the warehouse, located about three hours north of London near the Grimethorpe Nature Reserve, from about 11.30pm on Friday night.

"You couldnt see anything from outside except smoke and the emergency services. I went around the back to get a peak into the warehouse and all you could see was smoke coming out," he said.

This is the second warehouse fire for the retailer, there was a similar incident in 2006 when about $6.9 million worth of stock was lost.

Outside of Britain and the US, Australia is one of ASOS’ most successful regions and in 2012 a website dedicated to Aussie shoppers was launched and a local branch was established in Sydney. A little over a year ago at least four jumbo jets full of clothing, shoes, accessories and beauty orders from the fast fashion specialists were arriving in Australia every week.

But the brand, which is one of Britain’s largest fashion and beauty stores to operate solely online, has been hit hard in the hip pocket recently by the slump in the Australian dollar, and, according to The Australian Financial Review, slowing customer demand.

ASOS is aimed at the Gen Y consumer and regularly offers discounts to students. It stocks more than 850 high street and designer brands, many of which are Australian. In July 2013 it introduced a special delivery service for its Australian members, offering free two-day delivery to any metro area.