Zalando Deep Dive 2026: How Zalando is Reshaping its Platform Model

For years, Zalando was often described as a company transitioning from a traditional retailer to a platform. However, the 2025 results show that Zalando has long outgrown this simple binary. It is no longer a question of “retailer or marketplace”—it is about building an interconnected commerce infrastructure.

Through the merger with ABOUT YOU, a “Fashion Duo” has emerged that offers brands enormous reach while at the same time increasing their exposure to a more tightly integrated ecosystem.

1. The Growth Equation: Organic vs. Integration

Zalando reports strong figures: €17.56 billion GMV (+14.7%) and €12.35 billion revenue (+16.8%). With 62 million active customers, the group reaches a significant share of fashion consumers in Europe.

Marketplace Universe Insight
These figures need to be read in the context of the ABOUT YOU integration. Since ABOUT YOU contributed approximately 5.5 months, organic GMV growth sits at roughly 9%. This remains a strong result in a challenging market environment, but it also suggests that growth is increasingly driven by consolidation and market depth rather than purely organic expansion.

2. The Partner Program Paradox: Dilution or Strategic Shift?

One of the most relevant metrics is the Partner Program share (32%) of B2C GMV. Compared to 34.3% in 2024, this appears to be a decline. However, the integration of ABOUT YOU plays an important role, as the group average is mechanically diluted.

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Zalando highlights a comparison to 2019 (6x increase) instead of focusing on the year-over-year change. At the same time, the 40–50% target has been pushed to 2028, which raises a broader question: is Zalando currently rebalancing toward wholesale — or preparing to expand the Partner Program again under a different structure?

For brands, the key question is not only how the Partner Program evolves, but how it will be positioned within a broader Zalando + ABOUT YOU ecosystem.

3. Power Concentration: What do the €40m Synergies actually mean?

A central element is the €40 million annual cost synergies (2026). From an investor perspective, this signals efficiency. From a market structure perspective, it may point toward increasing consolidation.

If Zalando and ABOUT YOU move closer together in terms of systems, processes, and potentially commercial logic, this could lead to a shift in negotiating power over time. With Zalando and ABOUT YOU representing two of the most important fashion platforms in Europe, brands are increasingly operating within a shared ecosystem.

4. The Levi’s Watershed: The Trojan Horse named SCAYLE

The deal with Levi’s is the strategic highlight of the report. Levi’s is utilizing SCAYLE (Zalando’s B2B shop software) to handle its entire global Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) business across the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

Marketplace Universe Insight
Zalando is positioning itself at the infrastructure layer of e-commerce. For brands, this expands Zalando’s role from a sales channel to a technology provider. SCAYLE implies a level of technological integration beyond a marketplace listing and may also signal a broader B2B expansion into the US market, even if the report does not yet provide full clarity on how these capabilities will evolve.

5. ZEOS: From a Service Offering to a Strategic Lever

ZEOS enables around €11 billion GMV for 1,200+ partners, underlining its growing role within Zalando’s ecosystem. With increasing scale, logistics integration is becoming more central.

At the same time, ZEOS can also serve additional marketplaces, positioning it as part of a broader infrastructure layer rather than just a Zalando-specific service. This expands its strategic relevance for brands operating across multiple channels.

However, this also introduces a different type of dependency. Brands that rely heavily on ZEOS are increasingly exposed to logistics cost structures, where changes in pricing or service conditions can directly impact margins, particularly once processes are deeply embedded.

6. Retail Media: The Rising “Visibility Layer”

Retail Media has grown by +42.4% to €316 million, indicating that paid visibility is becoming more important within the platform.

For brands, this does not necessarily replace organic performance, but maintaining and scaling visibility may increasingly require advertising investment. At the same time, the combination of Retail Media, ZEOS, and other platform requirements may put pressure on margins, even without direct changes to commission rates.

What the Annual Report DOES NOT tell us

Despite the depth of the data, several of the most important questions for brands remain unanswered. The report provides scale and direction — but offers only limited visibility into how the system will evolve in practice.

1. True Partner Program Dynamics
How has the Partner Program actually developed post-integration? The report aggregates Zalando and ABOUT YOU in a way that limits comparability. This makes it difficult to assess whether the underlying marketplace model is strengthening, stagnating, or structurally changing.

2. Harmonization of Terms
Will commercial conditions, fees, and access rules converge between Zalando and ABOUT YOU over time? As both platforms grow closer operationally, brands are increasingly exposed to the possibility of aligned terms — but the report provides no indication of how this might evolve.

3. System Dependencies
How deeply will services like SCAYLE and ZEOS become embedded in brand operations? The Levi’s example highlights the potential, but it remains unclear how tightly these components will be connected — and what that means for flexibility and independence.

4. The Role of Logistics in Platform Performance
Could logistics integration (e.g. via ZEOS) become a stronger factor in visibility, performance, or program access? The report highlights operational improvements, but does not clarify whether logistics will evolve into a more structural requirement.

5. AI and Brand Identity
Zalando reports that a large share of onsite content is supported or generated by AI tools. While this increases efficiency, it raises questions about how platform-generated content and individual brand identity will be balanced over time.

6. Assortment and Stock Allocation Power
As Zalando and ABOUT YOU increase their combined importance for many brands, a more structural question emerges: who will shape assortment decisions in the future?

If brands rely on both platforms across wholesale and partner models, platform demand and buying decisions could begin to influence not only distribution, but also production planning. This would mark a shift from platforms as sales channels toward platforms as indirect drivers of assortment strategy.

Conclusion

Zalando is expanding across multiple layers of commerce — from consumer demand to logistics and software infrastructure. At the same time, key questions around terms, control, and dependencies remain unresolved.

For brands, success is no longer just about assortment, pricing, or execution. It increasingly depends on navigating a broader ecosystem with evolving rules.

What is already clear, however, is that the strategic importance of Zalando + ABOUT YOU is increasing — while visibility into how this system will evolve remains limited.

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Der Beitrag Zalando Business Update 2026 – Deep Dive erschien zuerst auf Marketplace Universe.

Zalando’s marketplace strategy: The annual figures for 2023 reveal a lot about the strategy for the Berlin-based company’s marketplace business. We therefore take a critical look at the figures, the most striking changes and the targets that Zalando has now set for the future.

Recalibrated partner target

Last year, Zalando recalibrated their Partner Goal: originally set at 50% for 2025, it’s now adjusted to 40-50% by 2028. But what’s really going on beneath these numbers?

For Q4 2023, Zalando reported a 39% Fashion Store GMV Share, a slight climb from 36% the previous year. Although there’s evident growth, we’re also seeing a strategic pivot. Zalando has expanded its goalposts, both in time and in scope, moving from a Fashion Store GMV to a broader B2C GMV base – which stood at 32% in 2023. This shift in their reporting parameters may cloud direct comparisons, yet it’s a pivotal change reflecting their strategic evolution, as illustrated in the second picture of this article.

Now, let’s dissect the details and look at Zalando’s strategic B2CpPillars:

 1. Differentiation through Quality

Zalando is opting for quality over quantity, cherry-picking high equity brands like @Lacoste, and adopting local approaches for different markets – such as France. This move has seen them pare down their assortment.

 Notably, last year saw the exclusion of many brands, and now, brand approvals have become stringent, sometimes even varying by country. This strategy aims for a ‘cleaner’ brand environment.

 2. AI-Driven Sizing and Reduced Returns

60% of all items sold get a AI based size advice which lead to 14% less returns on size-related returns  which is quite good, because Zalando Germany has the highest return rates of all (marketplaces) in Europe

3. Shifting to B2B: Strong Brand Partnerships and Ecosystem Expansion

Zalando’s focus on strengthening brand partnerships is evident with over 6,000 brands on board. They are also becoming more selective in their wholesale buying, with 62% of items shipped through ZFS – up from 58% in 2022. The transition to a platform model has progressed, as reflected by a 12% growth in their Partner Business GMV.

4. Lifestyle Extension and Entertainment

In addition, there is a lifestyle expansion into sports and credible assortments as well as a stronger focus on inspiration & entertainment as shopping drivers.

Conclusion of Zalando’s new Marketplace Strategy

Overall Zalando grew in the Partner Business by 12% and also with ZFS. The shift from quantity to quality leads to a cleaner customer experience with more curated assortment. Zalando made their switch to focus on profitability last year. ZEOS will become super interesting in the coming years and is a core pillar for Zalando’s marketplace strategy. 

Der Beitrag Zalando’s marketplace strategy: What the 2023 annual figures reveal erschien zuerst auf Marketplace Universe.

Vinted is squandering its investors’ millions on one acquisition after another, Mädchenflohmarkt tries a new marketplace strategy after the Wegner washout, and H&M is enjoying an unexpected windfall from its majority stake in thrift retailer Sellpy. There is a lot going on in the secondhand fashion market. But sooner or later, the same applies here: You have to stay in the black to stay in business.

Savior in need with new marketplace strategy

A few days after the official insolvency filing, however, a prominent investor was found: Christian Wegner, ex-Momox founder and co-founder of Stuffle.com. “My goal with Stuffle is to create a world where people buy more used stuff than new stuff – in every product category,” Christian told me in a recent interview. “That’s why I’m also looking at the second-hand fashion market – and when Mädchenflohmarkt, one of the biggest and best-known German players with its own pretty cool software, went bankrupt last year, I stepped in. Now we’re working on turning Mädchenflohmarkt into a functioning, profitable company.

The cross of profitability

“A functioning, profitable business” – Christian says it so simply, but in fact many business dreams in the Second-Hand fashion market have already failed because of this goal. “Size is a crucial issue in the Second-Hand fashion business,” says Second-Hand expert Karo Junker de Neui, founder and CEO of the luxury Second-Hand fashion retailer Vite enVogue until 2018. “The larger the store, the easier and more stable the assortment, the higher the rotation in the assortment and the higher the awareness, the cheaper it is to acquire buyers and sellers. Profitability in this area is very closely linked to large volumes.

However, even large volumes are no guarantee of profitability, as can be seen from the example of Europe’s largest player, Vinted. The company has been on the market since 2013 and has so far raised more than $500 million from 10 investors in six investor rounds – but is still not profitable: in 2022, Vinted generated revenues of €373 million (+51%), but still made a loss of €40 million (-62%). However, this does not stop Vinted from going on a shopping spree across Europe: in January 2024, Vinted took over the largest Danish second-hand marketplace Trendsales, and in 2022, the company swallowed up the German luxury accessories player Rebelle.

Profitability is therefore a big challenge in the second-hand fashion market – but not an impossible one, as a look at H&M‘s figures shows: In 2019, the Swedish retailer became the majority shareholder of the then unprofitable second-hand platform Sellpy. In the current annual figures, Sellpy makes a small but noticeable contribution to the company’s profit.

Can Mädchenflohmarkt make it with its new Marketplace strategy?

That depends on two things: the processes and the revenue streams. When it comes to processes, Christian Wegner, who wants his new project, Stuffle, to be profitable by next year at the latest, has used all his experience to give Mädchenflohmarkt a thorough overhaul. “In the secondhand sector, you have to be extremely tight with your logistics processes and, above all, your costs,” says Christian. “For this reason, the growth of Mädchenflohmarkt is of secondary importance to us for the time being; instead, we have streamlined the logistics processes. Especially in logistics and the concierge service (a service in which Mädchenflohmarkt takes care of product preparation, product listing and pricing for C2C sellers, editor’s note), we have already halved the time it takes to receive goods”.

The second step followed last week with the announcement of an exciting new marketplace strategy: Mädchenflohmarkt is opening its C2C marketplace to B2C sellers. “Mädchenflohmarkt already had the entire marketplace software in place, so the step to connect B2B partners wasn’t that big,” says Christian. “We are already in talks with second-hand retailers about a connection. We can also imagine other forms of cooperation with B2B partners. For example, our logistics processes with the concierge service could also be used by B2B partners for returns processing. But that’s still a long way off.

First B2C-Partners are found

The platform is thus opening up its access to around 2 million loyal second-hand customers to interested third parties – and at the same time offering them access to its processes. The first B2C partners are, not surprisingly, Stuffle.com and Vite enVogue, in which Christian Wegner is now also involved as an investor. “The idea is not completely new,” says Karo Junker de Neui. “In fact, About You’s marketplace already offers something similar in the pre-loved segment.

Mädchenflohmarkt and Vite enVogue are also connected there as sellers. Karo believes that retailers can definitely benefit from the connection to the new B2C marketplace with its high level of awareness, even if she fears that the various second-hand platforms will become uniform and ultimately lead to interchangeable product ranges.

And what about brand manufacturers?

Shouldn’t they welcome a platform like Mädchenflohmarkt, which has experience in processing and authenticating used fashion items – especially in light of the upcoming EU Eco-Design Directive, which could make it much more difficult for brands to destroy unsold goods?

“For years, manufacturers and brands have not only avoided the issue of used fashion, they have actively discouraged it,” says Karo Junker. “This is changing, but it’s happening at a snail’s pace. That’s why I can’t imagine that brands will welcome the marketplace Mädchenflohmarkt as a first step. There is certainly cooperation between brands and retailers in the second-hand market, but it usually takes place behind the scenes and out of the public eye.

With its new marketplace strategy, Mädchenflohmarkt first has to convince the second-hand traders of its marketplace. And continue to optimize its processes. It is quite possible that the future of the German Second-Hand fashion market will be decided this year.

Der Beitrag Mädchenflohmarkt: turnaround with a new marketplace strategy? erschien zuerst auf Marketplace Universe.