Zalando has reported a strong first quarter, with group revenue rising 23.8 per cent on a reported basis to €3bn as its acquisition of ABOUT YOU and growing use of AI helped boost performance.
The fashion and lifestyle platform said group gross merchandise volume increased 21.7 per cent on a reported basis to €4.3bn, while adjusted EBIT rose 38.7 per cent year-on-year to €65m.
The group’s adjusted EBIT margin improved from 1.9 per cent to 2.2 per cent, supported by €10m of synergies from the ABOUT YOU acquisition before integration costs.
Zalando said it remains on track to deliver €40m of synergies from the deal during 2026.
On a pro-forma basis, group GMV rose six per cent, while revenue increased 3.4 per cent.
The retailer confirmed its full-year guidance despite what it described as a volatile geopolitical backdrop and subdued macroeconomic environment. It expects reported GMV and revenue growth of between 12 per cent and 17 per cent for the full year, with adjusted EBIT between €660m and €740m.
Zalando co-chief executive Robert Gentz said: “Our strong first quarter demonstrates the strength of our strategy. We are very satisfied with the progress we’re making in strategically scaling AI innovations and integrating ABOUT YOU.
“Our unique data and infrastructure that we built over 17 years — including the richest fashion-specific data in Europe and the continent’s leading logistics network for fashion and lifestyle — are a massive advantage when supercharged with AI.”
Zalando said it had made “significant advances” in AI during the quarter, including expanding its Zalando Assistant to support beauty-related recommendations.
The feature now allows customers to receive personalised product suggestions across both fashion and beauty in a single conversation. The company said close to 10 million customers have already used the Assistant for advice year-to-date, compared with six million across the whole of 2025.
It said this marked a step towards turning the Assistant from a shopping tool into a broader “lifestyle companion”.
AI is also being used across Zalando’s logistics network. The business said it is continuing to roll out AI-driven robots across its pan-European fulfilment operations in partnership with Nomagic, with two million picks now automated by robots every month.
Zalando said the technology is helping increase operational speed, reduce manual handling and improve the resilience of its fulfilment network.
Generative AI is also being used to improve product onboarding by detecting and correcting visual errors and enriching around 6,000 articles a day with missing material composition data.
As a result, Zalando said up to 85 per cent of articles are now ready to go online in under three days, a 10 per cent improvement over the past two years.
In its business-to-consumer division, Zalando said its “team of apps” strategy was driving growth across the brand-led Zalando app, trend-focused ABOUT YOU app and deal-led Lounge by Zalando app.
ABOUT YOU and Lounge by Zalando both delivered double-digit growth, with the group also reporting a strong start to the spring/summer season across categories including sports, kids and family, and beauty.
Active customers rose to a new high of 62.3 million, up nearly 10 million year-on-year, driven by the inclusion of ABOUT YOU and stand-alone growth across all three apps.
Average spend per customer increased 2.9 per cent to €305, supported by larger basket sizes, while order frequency remained stable.
Zalando said its partner business continued to grow faster than its retail business across both Zalando and ABOUT YOU, reflecting its shift towards a higher-margin, capital-light platform model.
Its loyalty programme also continued to grow, reaching 18.5 million Plus members.
In its business-to-business division, sales rose 23.6 per cent to €297m, while adjusted EBIT increased to €26m. Adjusted EBIT margin climbed to 8.6 per cent.
Zalando said its ZEOS platform, which is designed to help brands and retailers manage cross-border ecommerce in Europe, had launched its first pilot partners in Norway and added two new sales channels. It now operates across 26 markets and 20 sales channels.
Zalando chief financial officer Anna Dimitrova said: “Our first quarter results reflect the same unwavering financial and operational discipline we already showed last year.
“We promised profitable growth and delivered it — again. Synergies are ahead of plan, our underlying business is strengthening every day, and our full-year guidance stands.”
Zalando will report its second-quarter results on 4 August.
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