Topshop and Topman are getting ready to unveil new standalone websites with the two e-tail brads having just launched holding pages. And there’s also speculation of a return to physical retail.

The pages currently feature the brands’ names, plus “coming soon” with a selection of model images on a video backdrop and the option to view trending pieces.

There’s also a link to go straight to the respective Topshop and Topman pages within ASOS, but the prospect of the two brands now being standalone webstores is a tantalising one.

ASOS bought the brands and made them online-only when former owner Arcadia went under and kept them as part of its webstore. But last year it sold a controlling stake in them to Heartland, which is controlled by the Holch Polvsen family, the owner of Bestseller.

That, along with ASOS’s recent leadership team restructuring with a new UK MD for Topshop and Topman, suggested big ambitions for them distinct from the core ASOS operation.

Topshop also relaunched its Instagram account last week and perhaps most interestingly, it has observers speculating about a return to physical retail. 

A new Instagram video it has posted shows Mayor of London Sadiq Khan describing the former Oxford Circus Topshop flagship as a favourite memory and saying “wouldn’t it be great to get Topshop back to Oxford Street?”

That may be a false trail, of course, but if the the reaction on social media is anything to go by, a return to Europe’s top shopping street would be undeniably popular.

It’s hardly surprising that the brands are currently online-only given that this is the channel in which ASOS specialises. But their sale to Bestseller’s owner is also a move that offers hope for anyone desperate for them to return to physical retail. The Danish company operates both online and in physical stores so there’s clearly a majority owner in place now with expertise in bricks and mortar.