MySale will become 'very dominant' in the UK, says founder

MySale co-founder Jamie Jackson said: “We like to control the market when we go in. We’ve being received very well here. I think in a year’s time we’ll have a clear picture of us being very dominant in the market.”

The flash Sales site, which listed on AIM in June and counts Sir Philip Green and Mike Ashley as investors, gets the bulk of its sales from Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia. However, it has had a “very, very encouraging” response since its UK debut in July, according to fellow co-founder Carl Jackson.  It last month started investing in digital marketing for the site here.

Carl Jackson said that its large discounts and its more international mix of brands would differentiate it from rival flash Sale sites.

He said: “We have 40 brands a day in the UK and our competitors have three to six brands.”

It faces competition from the likes of Brand Alley and Secret Sales in the UK.

The UK is just one part of MySale’s global expansion.  It today revealed it had bought 60% of Danish site Invite To Buy, which it plans torebrand to MySale in the next few months.

Jamie Jackson said that it plans to use Invite To Buy’s brand relationships, such as with Pandora and Ecco, to benefit the wider MySale business.

The retailer benefits from a global stock pool with buying offices in New York, London and Florence. Despite only launching its UK site in July, it has had a warehouse in the country for 18 months to distribute stock from UK brands. Its delivers 25% of its products from the UK and 25% from the US.

Green and Ashley are “very supportive” shareholders

Jamie Jackson said that shareholders Sir Philip Green and Mike Ashley had been “very supportive” since buying shares in the retailer earlier this year. “They’ve helped us develop relationships with brands. They know everyone on a global scale,” he said.

Jackson said it was focusing on selling Sports Direct and Arcadia brands in Australia and New Zealand and had recently held sales events for Burton, BHS and Topshop with a Sports Direct Sale planned for the next 10 days.

He said there was an opportunity to sell the brands in other countries on its platform but said South East Asia would be the most obvious place to launch the brands.

Bringing Cococa Down Under

The retailer is also planning to bring premium flash Sales site Cocosa to Australia and New Zealand in the next few weeks following its UK relaunch.

MySale bought the Cocosa brand and database in May after it was wound down last October by former owner, Harrods tycoon Mohamed Al Fayed.

Jamie Jackson said the addition of Cocosa gave the group breadth which would help it attract new brands.

“Brands who don’t want to be on the mainstream site can go on the more boutique site,” he said.