Zalando launched a flash Sales site in the UK today, which could signal it is vying making a push in to the UK market. Will it disrupt the market?

In its six years of existence Zalando has become an etail phenomenon. It has transformed from a German footwear etailer to a European-wide fashion giant twice the size of Asos.

Sales are on track to hit €2bn this year and in the second quarter of 2014 it broke into profit.

It now has over 1,500 brands on its site including UK retailers such as New Look, River Island, Hugo Boss. Even Topshop, which has always remained elusive to Asos’ charms, has signed up to its sites outside of the UK.

Despite its scale, the UK is a tiny part of its business. Zalando has not really made a big UK marketing push since its launch in 2011.  This is out of character for the innovative company, which grew its brand in Germany via a TV campaign valued at over €85m in 2010 by offering media companies an equity stake in its business in exchange for advertising slots.

Martin Newman, chief executive of ecommerce consultancy Practicology says that Zalando would be mad not to target the UK market.

“The UK is the most advanced market in the world in terms of percentage of online sales. They’ll be looking it as a big opportunity to grow,” he says.

And the guys at Zalando are ambitious and pride themselves on being disruptive. In a company presentation earlier this year, it said: “Over the last five years we have changed the ways Europeans shop fashion. But when we look at Zalando today we think it still is small compared to what it could be.  We are still at the beginning of our journey.”

Newman says that UK rivals such as Asos should be wary of the German retailer ramping up activities in the UK.

He says: “They are quite aggressive. They are not scared to give it a go and are prepared to invest for growth.”

However, the ecommerce director of one fashion retailer believes the German etailer has been vying to break in to the UK market.

“They’ve struggled to gain traction over here. They have spent money but it’s a notoriously difficult market,” he says.

Newman says that the retailer could be hindered from taking Asos’ crown in the UK by its slow fulfillment, which does not stack up while compared to market leaders over here.

UK shoppers are spoilt in terms of fulfillment, where they can choose from a multitude of options, including super quick delivery.

“It needs to improve that side of the proposition for it to really compete,” he says.

The ecommerce director, who applauds Zalando’s “brilliant tech and fantastic SEO”, agrees that it needs to up the ante in delivery which, although free, takes between three to six days. However, he says it could be relatively simple to improve as UK retailers without a distribution centre in Germany are able to ship in a day.

There are signs that it is looking to improve its delivery. Earlier this year it launched a pick-up service at 3,500 convenience stores in the UK through delivery partner Hermes.

Newman believes that Zalando needs to localise the proposition to propel growth in the UK. He recommends that Zalando recruits an in-country marketing team like Asos has done in its international markets.

He says: “Asos has great brand engagement. It will be hard to achieve that with a local team. You need to be seeing Zalando pop-ups in Glastonbury.”

Newman says that the flash Sales site, which he believes should do well, could signal that it is ready to focus on the UK and if so, fashion retailers should ready themselves for a tough battle.

“It’s got a great range of brands. I think it will take a lot of market share if its gets the logistics piece sorted,” he says.

All UK fashion firms will be watching closely to see when that happens.