Zalando turns attention to B2B

Fashion web shop Zalando seeks further growth and will therefore target the B2B market. Zalando’s platform will be used to support other companies’ brands grow.

Bestseller

“We have already expanded a lot, from local to abroad, to more product categories and now to business-to-business. We will use our platform to help other brands, with media services for instance”, co-founder David Schneider said during Zalando PlayDay in Berlin.

Danish Bestseller is the first brand to join Zalando’s new B2B service, but that is not surprising considering owner Ander Polvsen already has a 10 % stake in Zalando. The company also signed deals with shoe chain Shuh.de and several of Tommy Hilfiger’s Berlin-based stores. Those two will sell its physical stores’ supplies on Zalando.

Zalando also made headlines with the news that Weekday and Nike had joined its partner program, which will bring most of their collections to Zalando, in exchange for a fee. In return, Zalando will not have to buy stock from wholesale partners.

Double turnover

The German company wants to double down on growth and aims to double its 2016 turnover (3.6 billion euro) by 2020. Analysts have even forecast a 7.6 billion euro turnover by 2020, considerably more than its own estimate. Two new fulfillment centers in Sweden and Poland should help achieve this turnover growth.

“Our primary focus is on growth because no one is in the unique position Zalando has. We want to maintain profitability as well, albeit in a sustainable fashion”, vice president Birgit Opp said. “We have twenty million customers, but Europe has 420 million people, so we still have room for growth.”