German online fashion store Zalando wants to simulate Coolblue and Amazon and open its own chain of stores, mainly as a giant billboard to help promote the web shop.

Limited number

The company has no intention to launch an entire chain of Zalando stores, but more of a limited chain of major stores focused on large cities like Paris, London and Berlin. “We have a lot of fans in cosmopolitan cities, fans that spend a lot of time with us and order a lot”, CEO Rubin Ritter told German Manager Magazin. “It could be interesting to them to have our brands on sale offline as well.

These would not be Zalando’s first offline steps. It acquired fashion convention Bread & Butter in June 215 and also owns basketball chain Kickz since March. The latter already has a tiny store network in Germany and a physical outlet.

Ritter also sees plenty of major advantages to 3D printing and is even considering his own 3D printing factory. Small and average-sized fashion brands could use the sprawling technology there. “3D printing could become an important part of our company.”