Zalando quadruples profit as fashion season starts strongly

Zalando is raising its expectations for its 2024 financial year after a strong third quarter. The new autumn/winter season has started well for the whole sector, the platform reports.

Fashion revived

Zalando has crossed the fifty million active customers threshold in the past third quarter, pushing gross merchandise volume (the total of all sales) up 7.8 % to 3.5 billion euros, while regular sales (what Zalando earns itself) rose 5.0 % to 2.4 billion euros. Impressively, Zalando’s adjusted operating profit nearly quadrupled to 93 million euros. Last year, Zalando had to admit that rising costs and weak consumer confidence had caused profits to plummet.

“Consumer demand has increased across the industry in the third quarter, with a strong start to the fall/winter season, compared to last year’s slow beginning”, co-CEO Robert Gentz said. “Our new ecosystem strategy, empowering us to cover a larger share of the fashion and lifestyle e-commerce market, positions us very well to capture growth opportunities.”

Zalando’s financial year 2024 will therefore be better than originally expected: gross merchandise volume will grow by 3 to 5 %, compared to the earlier forecast of 0 to 5 %. Sales would now grow between 2 and 5 %. Adjusted gross profit is expected to be between 440 and 480 million euros, compared to an earlier estimate of between 380 and 450 million euros. This comes partly as the fashion platform will cut investments: instead of 250 to 350 million euros, investment targets will rather be 200 million euros.