Following today’s release of Zalando’s figures for the year ending 31 December 2024: Louise Deglise-Favre, senior apparel analyst at GlobalData, offers her view: “Zalando’s revenue growth continued to accelerate in the last quarter of FY2024, allowing its full year revenue to rise 4.2% to almost €10.6bn, as its superior product assortment of highly desirable premium, sportswear and beauty brands allowed it to appeal to more consumers. The retailer also delivered strong profits, with its adjusted EBIT reaching €511.1m, far exceeding its October guidance of €440-480m. Zalando expects these positive results to continue and potentially accelerate in 2025, with the retailer providing full year revenue growth guidance between 4% and 9% and forecasting its adjusted EBIT to reach between €530m and €590m. This guidance does not include Zalando’s acquisition of fellow German online retailer ABOUT YOU, which should be completed by the summer, and will further strengthen its position in the European online fashion landscape.
“Business-to-consumer FY2024 sales rose 3.8%, as Zalando continued to improve its product offering by adding desirable premium and luxury brands such as On, Versace menswear and Marine Serre, allowing it to operate in a more elevated landscape than other online fashion players such as Shein and ASOS and target an older and more financially secure consumer base. The retailer will continue this strategy in 2025, already becoming the exclusive European retail partner for luxury brand Diane Von Furstenberg in February. Zalando also plans to expand its lifestyle proposition, including categories such as beauty, home and sportswear, enhancing its destination appeal. As such, Zalando will expand its beauty proposition to Spain and Finland in 2025, and its outlet shopping site Lounge by Zalando will be rolled out to five additional markets, catering to price-conscious consumers looking for bargains. Zalando will also enter Portugal, Greece and Bulgaria for the first time in 2025.
“Zalando also continued to differentiate itself from rivals through technology, launching and expanding innovative features throughout the year, such as its AI-driven shopping assistant and its Trend Spotter tool to help shoppers identify emerging trends. In 2025, Zalando plans to release the pilot for an outfit builder tool named StyleIt, which will allow shoppers to build complete outfits on a virtual avatar of their choice. The retailer will also continue rolling out its updated loyalty programme Zalando Plus, which now operates with a points-based system rather than annual membership fees.
“Zalando also made great strides within its business-to-business segment, which rose 11.5%, as its comprehensive logistics and fulfilment offering through its ZEOS platform continued to expand, now servicing clients in 12 markets across ten different channels including their own websites and nine marketplaces. The retailer plans to continue expanding this offering, already announcing in November 2024 that it will launch as Next’s fulfilment partner in continental Europe from Q4 2025, allowing it to enter ten new markets.”
