Company Announcements

                                                                             

Zalando Delivers Strong Growth and Profit Rise in Q2, Rolls Out AI-Powered Discovery Feed to Further Inspire Growing Customer Base
 

• Second-quarter Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) rose by 5.0% to 4.1 billion euros, revenue grew by 7.3% to 2.8 billion euros, and adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (adjusted EBIT) reached 186 million euros after 172 million euros a year earlier, representing a stable profit margin of 6.5%
• Business-to-Consumer (B2C) growth vector records 6.1% surge in the number of active customers, reaching a new high of 52.9 million. Continued investment in customer experience with the launch of AI-driven discovery feed will deliver even more personalised inspiration and boost organic customer engagement
• Business-to-Business (B2B) growth vector maintains strong momentum, driven by double-digit growth in ZEOS Fulfilment; additionally  the launch of a new Shopify application connects Shopify merchants directly to the ZEOS platform
• Following the successful closing of the ABOUT YOU transaction on 11 July, Zalando has issued its first full-year 2025 guidance for the combined group, demonstrating its commitment to drive profitable growth at larger scale: GMV of 17.2 – 17.6 billion euros, revenue of 12.1 – 12.4 billion euros, adjusted EBIT of 550 – 600 million euros, capital expenditure (CapEx)  of 200 – 280 million euros, and negative net working capital

Berlin, 5 August 2025 // Zalando SE (“Zalando”) delivered strong growth and a rise in profit in the second quarter of 2025, driven by the successful execution of its strategy to build the leading pan-European fashion and lifestyle e-commerce ecosystem around its two growth vectors B2C and B2B. Following the successful completion of its transaction with ABOUT YOU, the company will keep investing in strategic growth opportunities, reflecting its ambition to serve an even larger share of Europe’s 450 billion-euro fashion market and its commitment to create long-term value through profitable growth.

“We’re embracing the immense opportunities ahead of us with the expansion of our offerings and long-term partnerships in both B2C and B2B,” said David Schröder, Co-CEO of Zalando. “In B2C, Zalando is continuing to redefine fashion and lifestyle shopping by making the customer experience more inspiring and personalised with our new AI-driven discovery feed - boosting customer engagement and supporting our advertising business. In B2B, the launch of our ZEOS Shopify application and the collaboration with ABOUT YOU’s SCAYLE software unit are milestones in building a software ecosystem that supports our merchants' most strategic digital channel: their own e-commerce.”

In the second quarter, Zalando’s gross merchandise volume (GMV) saw an increase of 5.0% to 4.1 billion euros, while revenue increased 7.3% year-over-year to 2.8 billion euros. Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (adjusted EBIT) reached 186 million euros, after 172 million euros a year earlier, representing a stable margin of 6.5%.

AI-Powered Inspiration and Personalisation in B2C

Within the B2C growth vector, Zalando recorded a 6.1% increase in active customers, reaching a new high of 52.9 million. To encourage the growing customer base to spend more time on the platform - and simultaneously support brand partners in telling their stories and tapping into brand accretive advertising opportunities - Zalando is continuing to make the customer experience even more inspiring and personalised.

This week, Zalando is launching a new AI-powered discovery feed, replacing the traditional home screen in the app. For customers, this feed brings together everything which is new and personally relevant to each customer from the Zalando world – including curated lifestyle boards, personalised product recommendations, livestream shopping, inspirational campaign stories, and high-quality editorial content from brands, creators, and Zalando. All in one, easy-to-scroll personal feed. From the moment users open the Zalando app, shopping becomes more immersive and entertaining. Fresh, relevant content updates regularly, keeping customers engaged and coming back.

For partners, the feed opens many new opportunities to reach audiences through even more relevant organic and advertisement placements. In summary, the feed blends the convenience of e-commerce, the entertainment of social media, the connection of idea-sharing platforms, and the inspiration of editorial content. Zalando’s goal is to create the fashion and lifestyle gateway for European consumers, offering them the most newsworthy and personally relevant access to fashion and lifestyle content, brands, and products. The feed will first go live in six markets, with a gradual rollout to follow, extending the customer journey well beyond the transactional.

B2C growth in the second quarter was also supported by strong progress in its two other B2C growth pillars: differentiation through quality and lifestyle expansion. Zalando’s upgraded loyalty programme reached more than 10 million customers at the end of the second quarter. The loyalty programme was recently launched in 4 additional markets, bringing the total to 17. Ultimately, Zalando aims to serve the majority of customers through this programme, thereby increasing their average order frequency and Zalando’s share of their spending.

Zalando also delivered over proportional growth in its Lounge, Designer, and Beauty propositions, making progress on building out more areas that address more lifestyle needs of customers, thus enabling Zalando to capture a higher share of customers’ wallets. Furthermore, in the first half of the year Zalando saw a 45% growth in Zalando Marketing Services, the comprehensive suite of marketing tools and services designed to enhance the presence of brands on the platform.

Overall, this resulted in a 6.8% rise in B2C revenues to 2.6 billion euros and an adjusted EBIT of 174 million euros in the second quarter. This represents an improvement of 9 million euros year-over-year.

B2B Growth Driven by ZEOS Fulfillment

In the B2B growth vector, where Zalando is opening up its logistics infrastructure, software, and service capabilities to be a key enabler for brands' and retailers' e-commerce transactions with its ZEOS operating system, regardless of whether they take place on or off its platform, revenue growth rates continued to outgrow group revenues. In the second quarter, B2B revenues increased 12.2% to 262 million euros. Adjusted EBIT was 11 million euros, with the margin increasing by 1.3 percentage points to 4.3%.

Growth in the B2B segment continued to be primarily driven by ZEOS Fulfilment, encompassing both Zalando Fulfilment Solutions (ZFS) and multi-channel fulfilment. UK-based clothing retailer NEXT is now leveraging Zalando’s fulfilment infrastructure for its largest Continental European market, Germany, after already using ZFS for the majority of its Zalando-based business.

In the second half of the year, NEXT will expand the collaboration to include its own webshop and additional European marketplace business. Zalando will also continue to expand its multi-channel fulfilment by increasing the number of merchants and sales channels supported by ZEOS.

Another milestone in B2B was the launch of the ZEOS Shopify application, which opens up ZEOS multi-channel fulfilment to Shopify's massive merchant base in Europe, providing them with benefits such as faster onboarding, reduced operational complexity, and cost savings. Alongside the collaboration with ABOUT YOU's SCAYLE unit, it reflects Zalando’s ongoing commitment to building its software ecosystem and strengthening its support for merchants' most strategic digital channel: their own e-commerce.

Outlook for 2025

Zalando issued its first full-year 2025 guidance for the combined group that now includes both Zalando and ABOUT YOU, demonstrating its commitment to drive profitable growth at larger scale amidst a fast changing macroeconomic and geopolitical environment.

For the 2025 financial year, the combined group now expects GMV between 17.2 billion and 17.6 billion euros and revenue between 12.1 billion and 12.4 billion euros – both figures include ABOUT YOU from the date the transaction was closed on 11 July. The combined group's adjusted EBIT is expected to be between 550 million to 600 million euros.  This adjusted EBIT increase is driven by Zalando’s strong performance in the first half of the year and also reflects the company’s expectation to benefit from further efficiencies in its cost lines as well as from early synergies in the second half of the year. Capital expenditure (CapEx) is expected to range from 200 million to 280 million euros, and net working capital is forecast to remain negative.

Including ABOUT YOU, Zalando expects GMV and revenue growth of between 4% and 7%, on a pro-forma basis as of 11 July, assuming ABOUT YOU had been part of the group in the prior-year period.  This growth is attributed to strong topline performance in the first half of the year and an expected continued mid-single-digit topline growth for the combined business in the second half.

Zalando and ABOUT YOU in July announced that they have completed their strategic combination and are now executing their joint value creation plan while preserving the distinct identities of both brands. The transaction is expected to unlock meaningful long-term value, with targeted group EBIT synergies of around 100 million euros annually from 2029 onwards.

As part of its disciplined financial strategy and following its scheduled maturity on 6 August, Zalando also repaid one of its two outstanding convertible bonds with a remaining notional of 400 million euros, using available cash. This reflects the company’s strong liquidity position. Zalando’s remaining cash position stands at approximately 1.2 billion euros, after taking into account the ABOUT YOU acquisition in July as well as the paydown of the convertible bond.

The Q2 2025 financial report, as well as the earnings presentation for analysts and investors, is available on the Zalando Investor Relations website. Zalando will report the results for the third quarter 2025 on November 6, 2025.

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Zalando at a glance

Key figures*
In m EUR	Q2/25	Q2/24
Group GMV	4,058.1	3,864.3
Percent growth	5.0 %	3.4 %
Group revenue	2,835.1	2,643.2
Percent growth	7.3 %	3.4 %
B2C revenue	2,576.1	2,413.1
B2B revenue	262.4	233.8
Reconciliation revenue	-3.4	-3.7
Adjusted group EBIT	185.5	171.6
Adjusted group EBIT margin	6.5 %	6.5 %
B2C adjusted EBIT	173.7	165.2
B2B adjusted EBIT	11.4	7.1
Reconciliation adjusted EBIT	0.4	-0.8
Net working capital	-107.9	-488.2
Capital expenditure	-59.8	-40.6
Net income	96.6	95.7

 

Key performance indicators
	Q2/25	Q2/24
Active customers (million) (last 12 months)	52.9	49.8
Number of orders (million)	65.0	63.4
Average orders per active customer (last 12 months)	4.8	4.9
Average basket size (EUR) (last 12 months)	61.6	60.9

*Definitions are available in the Annual Report 2024

 

About Zalando
Founded in Berlin in 2008, Zalando is Europe’s leading online multi-brand fashion destination. We are building a pan-European ecosystem for fashion and lifestyle e-commerce, along two growth vectors: Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and Business-to-Business (B2B). In B2C, we provide an inspiring, high-quality multi-brand shopping experience for fashion and lifestyle products to more than 52 million active customers across 25 markets. In B2B, we leverage our logistics infrastructure, software, and service capabilities to support brands and retailers in managing and scaling their entire e-commerce business, both on and off the Zalando platform. On 11 July 2025, Zalando successfully closed its strategic combination with Hamburg-based ABOUT YOU, allowing both companies to serve customers and partners across Europe even better. ABOUT YOU’s operations add scale and complementary capabilities, fully aligning with Zalando’s ecosystem strategy.

https://corporate.zalando.com

 

Contact

Media inquiries           
Sarah Syed       
Business & Financial Communications   
presse@zalando.de 

Investor/Analyst inquiries
Patrick Kofler 
Investor Relations
investor.relations@zalando.de