Companies

Zalando aims for 10% of Europe’s fashion market

Mar 24, 2021 Germany

After what they called a strong financial year, the ecommerce giant significantly upgraded its growth ambitions and now aims to grow Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) to more than 30 billion euros by 2025. Zalando are aiming for 10% of the European fashion market in the long-term

Zalando co-CEO Robert Gentz commented: “2020 has been a year like no other. We have kept our eyes on our long-term vision to be the Starting Point for Fashion. For the coming years, our focus remains on growth and investments for the long-term.”

In 2020, Zalando achieved 10.7 billion euros in GMV, accelerating its growth to 30.4% year-on-year. According to the company this was mainly driven by “outstanding intake of new customers and strong Partner Program performance”. In the same period, revenue grew by 23.1% to 8.0 billion euros. Zalando recorded adjusted EBIT of 420.8 million euros, corresponding to a margin of 5.3%, driven by “increasing operating leverage and a significant decrease in return rates year-on-year”.

Given this set of results, Zalando has lifted its sales and profit forecasts, and now expects to grow GMV by 27-32% to 13.6-14.1 billion euros in the financial year 2021. The company is aiming for 10% of Europe's fashion market. Revenue “will trail GMV growth as a result of the ongoing platform transition at 24-29% growth or 9.9-10.3 billion euros”. Zalando expects to continue to grow profitably with an adjusted EBIT of 350-425 million euros.

The company also announced continued investment into its "logistics infrastructure and technology platform" as it plans capital expenditure of 350-400 million euros in 2021.