Spanish fast-fashion retailer Zara will launch its online store in Australia tomorrow, March 14.

The local website has been replaced with the simple message “Dear Australia, shop online March 14″ in the lead up to the event.

It’s been seven years since Zara launched in Australia, going on to establish 15 Zara fashion stores nationally and two separate Zara Home outlets, although in recent months, the brand has reportedly been in discussions about closing poor performing outlets.

The local online retail market is currently led by The Iconic, however Zara newest offering could change that. It’s also expected to be another blow for bricks and mortar brands already losing the battle to online merchants.

While Australian retail sales have been pretty weak recently, increasing by just 2.1% in the year to January, continuing the deceleration seen in the past few years, domestic online sales are currently growing at 32% per annum and account for more than half of total retail sales growth in Australia.

“A year ago the share was half that, and two years ago it was less than 10%,” says Macquarie Bank.

“If you needed a statistic to summarise the disruption currently occurring in Australian retail, it is this.”

Zara has also been trialing a number of digital shopping strategies in other international markets, including a pop-up store for click-and-collect orders in London.

It has more than 2200 stores around the world and rakes in $US9 billion in revenue each year.

This post will be updated once the store is live.

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