Berlin-based online fashion retailer Zalando SE reports a 4.5% increase in the 2024 financial performance, driven by the successful execution of its strategy to build the pan-European fashion and lifestyle e-commerce ecosystem along two growth vectors, B2C and B2B.
Berlin-based online fashion retailer Zalando SE Reports €15.3 billion GMV in 2024 Image: Zalando Corporate
In 2024, Zalando demonstrated that even in a rather muted macroeconomic environment, the company is able to find pockets of growth. Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) increased by 4.5 percent, reaching 15.3 billion euros, while revenue grew by 4.2 percent to 10.6 billion euros. The company’s active customer base increased to an all-time high of 51.8 million active customers by the end of 2024, marking a 4.5 percent rise from the previous year.
“In our B2C growth vector, we are rolling out our updated loyalty programme, expanding our lifestyle offerings in areas such as sports, and inspiring customers through exciting content integrations. In B2B, we are almost doubling the markets we are operating in and offering more advanced software and logistics solutions to serve brands’ and retailers’ own web-shops and apps.”
In 2024, the company made significant strides in onboarding new brands like Versace menswear, Marine Serre, On, and Fjällräven. In February, Zalando became the exclusive retailer for Diane von Furstenberg in Europe and doubled the Adaptive fashion portfolio to over six hundred adaptive styles. Lastly, the retailer has improved product presentation and is heightening the consumer experience with tailored, innovative digital experiences such as its digital size advice for customers.
Zalando SE forecasts further growth for 2025
Zalando’s management anticipates further growth in 2025. “Our ecosystem strategy is progressing well and is our exciting new North Star. It has already contributed to a strong financial performance in 2024, and we now accelerate our execution efforts and invest to capture future growth,” said Zalando co-CEO Robert Gentz. Additionally, Zalando plans to expand its online shop into Portugal, Greece, and Bulgaria.
Zalando SE forecasts further growth for 2025. Image: Zalando Corporate
In 2025, Zalando expects GMV and revenue to grow between 4 percent and 9 percent, compared with 2024, and adjusted EBIT to reach a level between 530 million euros and 590 million euros. The guidance does not account for effects from the planned acquisition of Hamburg-based ABOUT YOU. Zalando SE has successfully secured more than 90 percent of the share capital of ABOUT YOU Holding SE without treasury shares through its public takeover offer and related agreements.
PS Zalando is already progressing toward its 2025 targets by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in operations by 82 percent and cutting emission intensity from private labels’ products by 48 percent since 2018. The long-term goal is for net-zero emissions in its own operations and private labels by 2040, and across its entire platform by 2050.
About Zalando
Founded by Robert Gentz and David Schneider on February 26, 2008 and headquartered in Berlin, Zalando is Europe’s leading multi-brand fashion and lifestyle e-tailer, and offers apparel, accessories, footwear and beauty products.
It operates along two growth vectors: Business-to-Consumer and Business-to-Business. In B2C, it provides an inspiring, high-quality multi-brand shopping experience for fashion and lifestyle products to more than 50 million active customers across twenty-five markets. In B2B, they leverage their logistics infrastructure, software, and service capabilities to support brands and retailers in managing and scaling their e-commerce business, on and off the Zalando platform.
Today, what once was a Berlin start-up has grown into a European company – Zalando SE. Zalando employs people from around 140 countries and is headed by Management Board members Robert Gentz, David Schneider, Dr. Astrid Arndt, Dr. Sandra Dembeck and David Schröder. Meanwhile, the original office on Torstraße is now home to project teams working on innovative services and testing out new technology.
Jasmeen Dugal is Associate Editor at FashionABC, contributing her insights on fashion, technology, and sustainability. She brings with herself more than two decades of editorial experience, working for national newspapers and luxury magazines in India.
Jasmeen Dugal has worked with exchange4media as a senior writer contributing articles on the country’s advertising and marketing movements, and then with Condenast India as Net Editor where she helmed Vogue India’s official website in terms of design, layout and daily content. Besides this, she is also an entrepreneur running her own luxury portal, Explosivefashion, which highlights the latest in luxury fashion and hospitality.
