Zalando, which announced the acquisition of About You last month, reports strong growth and increased profits in the second quarter of 2025, thanks to the success of its strategy to build the leading pan-European e-commerce ecosystem in fashion and lifestyle, along the two growth vectors of B2C and B2B. Following the completion of the transaction with About You, the company will continue to invest in strategic development opportunities, confirming its ambition to serve an even larger share of the €450 billion European fashion market and its commitment to generating lasting value through profitable growth.
“We are seizing the immense opportunities that await us thanks to the expansion of our offering and long-term partnerships in both B2C and B2B,” said David Schröder, Co-CEO of Zalando, in a statement. . “In B2C, Zalando continues to redefine the fashion and lifestyle shopping experience, making it more inspirational and personalised thanks to our new AI-powered discovery feed, thereby increasing customer engagement and supporting our advertising business. In B2B, the launch of our Zeos app for Shopify and the collaboration with About You’s Scayle software unit represent important milestones in building a software ecosystem that supports the most strategic digital channel for our merchants: their own e-commerce.”
In the second quarter, Zalando’s GMV (gross merchandise value) increased by 5.0% to €4.1 billion, while revenues grew by 7.3% year-on-year to €2.8 billion. Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (adjusted EBIT) reached €186 million, compared to €172 million in the previous year, maintaining a stable margin of 6.5%.
Eloisa Siclari, general manager for Italy and Spain at Zalando, comments: “At Zalando, we want to offer our customers a selection of quality products and the convenience of a complete range in one place, guaranteeing a shopping experience that combines the best of fashion, lifestyle and beauty. Thanks to our ability to combine inspiration and entertainment, we are redefining the way people shop online, while continuing to expand our range with new products and brands. . Italy remains a strategic priority for Zalando: one example of this is the partnership signed with the National Chamber of Italian Fashion, which has allowed us to bring together the leading players in Italian and international luxury fashion once again this year.
Within the B2C growth vector, Zalando recorded a 6.1% increase in the number of active customers, reaching a new record of 52.9 million. To encourage this growing customer base to spend more time on the platform, while supporting brand partners in telling their stories and seizing valuable advertising opportunities, Zalando continues to make the customer experience increasingly inspirational and personalised.
Zalando is also launching a new discovery feed based on artificial intelligence, which will replace the app’s traditional home screen. For customers, this feed brings together everything that is new and personally relevant in the Zalando world, including curated lifestyle boards, personalised product recommendations, livestream shopping, inspirational campaigns and high-quality editorial content created by brands, creators and Zalando itself: all in a single, personalised, easy-to-scroll feed. From the moment you open the Zalando app, the shopping experience becomes more engaging and enjoyable; the content, which is always fresh and relevant, is updated regularly, keeping customers engaged and encouraging them to return.
For partners, the feed opens up many new opportunities to reach audiences with even more relevant organic and advertising content. In short, it combines the convenience of e-commerce, the entertainment of social media, the sharing of ideas and the inspiration of editorial content. Zalando’s goal is to become the main gateway to fashion and lifestyle for European consumers, offering them increasingly relevant and up-to-date content, brands and products. The feed will initially be launched in six markets, with a gradual rollout to follow, extending the customer experience well beyond the moment of purchase.
B2C growth in the second quarter was also supported by progress in the other two main growth drivers for this channel: differentiation through quality and expansion into lifestyle. Zalando’s enhanced loyalty programme, Zalando Plus, exceeded 10 million active customers at the end of the second quarter; it was recently launched in four new markets, bringing the total to 17. The ultimate goal is to serve the majority of customers through this programme, thereby increasing the average order frequency and the share of spending allocated to Zalando.
In addition, the company recorded above-average growth in its Lounge, Designer and Beauty propositions, making progress in expanding its lifestyle offering to meet a wider range of needs and capture a larger share of the customer portfolio. In addition, in the first half of the year, Zalando saw 45% growth in Zalando marketing services, the comprehensive suite of marketing tools and services designed to strengthen brands’ presence on the platform.
Overall, this translated into a 6.8% increase in B2C revenues, which reached €2.6 billion, and adjusted EBIT of €174 million in the second quarter, an improvement of €9 million year-on-year.
In the B2B segment, Zalando is opening up its logistics infrastructure, software services and operational expertise to become a key facilitator for e-commerce transactions for brands and retailers through the Zeos operating system, regardless of whether they take place on its own platform or not. Thanks to the Zeos operating system, revenue growth rates continued to exceed those of the group; in the second quarter, B2B revenues increased by 12.2%, reaching €262 million. Adjusted EBIT was €11 million, with a margin up 1.3 percentage points to 4.3%.
The expansion of the B2B segment was mainly driven by Zeos Fulfilment, which includes both Zalando Fulfilment Solution (ZFS) and multi-channel logistics. British clothing retailer Next is using Zalando’s logistics infrastructure for its largest market in continental Europe, Germany, after already employing ZFS for most of its business within the Zalando platform.
In the second half of the year, Next will expand the collaboration to include its own webshop and additional activities on European marketplaces. Zalando will also continue to expand its multi-channel fulfilment services, increasing the number of merchants and sales channels supported by Zeos.
Another important milestone in B2B was the launch of the Zeos app for Shopify, which opens up Zeos’ multi-channel fulfilment services to Shopify’s vast merchant base in Europe, offering them benefits such as faster integration, reduced operational complexity and lower costs. Together with the collaboration with About You’s Scayle unit, this initiative reflects Zalando’s ongoing commitment to building a software ecosystem and strengthening support for merchants on their most strategic digital channel: their own e-commerce.
Zalando has revealed its first full-year guidance for 2025 for the combined group, which now includes both Zalando and About You, demonstrating its commitment to driving profitable growth on a larger scale in a rapidly changing macroeconomic and geopolitical environment.
For the 2025 financial year, the combined group expects GMV to be between €17.2 billion and €17.6 billion and revenue to be between €12.1 billion and €12.4 billion: both figures include About You from the closing date of the acquisition on 11 July. The combined group’s adjusted EBIT is expected to be between €550 million and €600 million; this increase in adjusted EBIT is driven by Zalando’s strong performance in the first half of the year and also reflects the company’s expectation of benefiting from further cost efficiencies and initial synergies in the second half of the year. Capital expenditure is expected to be between €200 million and €280 million, while net working capital is expected to remain negative.
Including About You, Zalando expects GMV and revenue growth of between 4% and 7% on a pro-forma basis from 11 July, assuming that About You was already part of the group in the same period last year. This growth is attributed to a solid revenue performance in the first half of the year and expected continued revenue growth at a mid-single-digit rate for the combined business in the second half.
In July, Zalando and About You announced that they had completed their strategic combination and are now executing their joint value creation plan, while maintaining the distinctive identities of both brands. The transaction is expected to unlock significant long-term value, with targeted EBIT synergies of approximately €100 million per year starting in 2029.
As part of its disciplined financial strategy and following the scheduled maturity on 6 August, Zalando also redeemed one of its two outstanding convertible bonds, with a remaining nominal value of €400 million, using available cash; this demonstrates the company’s strong liquidity position. Zalando’s remaining cash position amounts to approximately €1.2 billion, taking into account the acquisition of About You in July and the redemption of the convertible bond.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ©