Following today’s release of Zalando’s figures for the three months ending 30 September 2025; Chloe Tedford-Jones, apparel analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view: “Zalando’s revenue growth gained further momentum in Q3, rising 26.5% to €3.0bn, following on from a rise of 7.3% to €2.8bn in Q2, however this growth was driven primarily by the consolidation of ABOUT YOU following the retailer’s July acquisition. For the first nine months of 2025, revenue increased 13.8% to €8.3bn. This broader growth was supported not only by ABOUT YOU’s contribution but also by Zalando’s strong selection of brands, seasonal campaigns, and continued geographic expansion, all of which resonated with consumers and strengthened overall performance. This led the retailer to confirm its full year guidance, expecting revenue growth to land between 4-7%, and adjusted EBIT to reach €550-600m.
“Business-to-consumer sales rose 27.9% in Q3, bolstered by the addition of ABOUT YOU’s direct-to-consumer business. Following the merger, both brands ran joint visibility campaigns across Europe to strengthen brand awareness, and ABOUT YOU’s social media and influencer marketing model was integrated into Zalando’s existing marketing approach, expanding reach among younger consumers. Outside of acquisitions, Zalando benefited from expansion into new markets, for example launching in Portugal in October 2025, as well as the rollout of Zalando Beauty into additional countries such as Spain. The retailer also benefited from successful seasonal campaigns, in particular the autumn/winter collection launch featuring actor Uma Thurman and singer Pink Pantheress.
“Zalando continues to use technology to differentiate from competitors, leveraging AI to produce marketing imagery as a faster way to respond to trends, as well as launching an AI-powered discovery feed in its app in 2025. This enables it to offer a mix of personalised product recommendations, lifestyle content and live shopping, which has led to consumers spending more time on their platform and increased purchase frequency. The retailer also continued to focus on the expansion of its ‘Zalando Plus’ loyalty programme as a way to increase repeat purchases and order frequencies, adding additional technologies such as AI-driven personalized recommendations and data-driven retention marketing to enhance consumer loyalty..
“Zalando’s Business-to Business (B2B) segment rose 15.6% in Q3, diversifying the retailer’s revenue base and decreasing the dependence on consumer retail. While the B2B division still represents a minor share of the group’s revenue, making up just 9.2%, it presents a highly lucrative opportunity and will likely remain a key development area for the company. Notably, Zalando’s ZEOS platform secured a strategic partnership with NEXT in November 2025 to manage the retailer’s direct‑to‑consumer fulfilment across continental Europe. The agreement leverages ZEOS’ logistics network, multi‑channel software, and local carrier infrastructure to improve delivery speed, inventory availability, and overall customer experience. For Zalando, NEXT represents a high‑profile enterprise client that validates ZEOS’ capability to handle large-scale operations.”
