Zalando delivers strong Q1 as artificial intelligence and ABOUT YOU integration drive growth and efficiencies
 

• On a reported basis, group GMV grows by +21.7%, group revenue gains 23.8% and adjusted EBIT climbs to 65 million euros, with synergies from ABOUT YOU acquisition contributing 10 million euros
• Group adjusted EBIT margin increases from 1.9% to 2.2%
• In Business-to-Consumer (B2C), the company’s multi-app approach drives active customers to a new high of 62.3 million, with average spend per customer rising 2.9% to 305 euros
• In Business-to-Business (B2B), reported sales increase 23.6% to 297 million euros, adjusted EBIT climbs to 26 million euros and adjusted EBIT margin rises to 8.6%
• Building on its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, Zalando is further expanding its Assistant into a true lifestyle companion, deploying advanced robots across its logistics network, and using generative AI image processing to boost product onboarding speed
• The group confirms its full-year 2026 guidance across all metrics
   

Berlin, 6 May 2026 // Zalando SE (“Zalando”), Europe’s leading technology platform for fashion and lifestyle, today reported a strong start to 2026. Sales and profits further strengthened in the first quarter as the deployment of AI and the acquisition of ABOUT YOU delivered growth and efficiencies across B2C and B2B.

Group GMV grew by 6% on a pro-forma basis and 21.7% on a reported basis to 4.3 billion euros. Group revenue increased by 3.4% pro-forma and 23.8% reported, reaching 3 billion euros. Adjusted EBIT reached 65 million euros, up 38.7% year-on-year* with the group adjusted EBIT margin improving from 1.9% to 2.2%. This was supported by 10 million euros in synergies from the acquisition of ABOUT YOU, before integration costs, and is on track to reach guidance of 40 million euros in 2026.

Despite a volatile geopolitical situation and a subdued macro-economic environment since Zalando issued its full-year outlook in early March, consumer demand persists, demonstrating the resilience of Zalando’s business. For the 2026 fiscal year, Zalando confirmed its guidance, projecting GMV and revenue growth of 12% to 17% on a reported basis and an adjusted EBIT between 660 million and 740 million euros.

“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,” said Robert Gentz, Co-CEO of Zalando. “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.”

Significant AI advances

In the first quarter, the company made several significant advances in applying AI as a powerful catalyst for both growth and efficiency. The Zalando Assistant now fully supports beauty-related recommendations, allowing customers to receive personalised product suggestions that span both fashion and beauty in a single conversation. Year-to-date, close to 10 million customers have already asked the Assistant for advice, up from 6 million in the whole of 2025.

This progress marks a defining step in the evolution of the Assistant from a shopping tool into a true lifestyle companion, and reflects Zalando’s ambition to grow alongside its customers across every dimension of their lifestyle spending.

In logistics, Zalando proceeded with the strategic roll-out of AI-driven robots across its pan-European fulfilment network in collaboration with Nomagic. Already today, 2 million items are automated by robots every month, increasing operational speed, reducing manual handling, and enhancing the resilience and scalability of Zalando’s fulfilment operations across Europe.

AI also helped to improve the speed and quality of partner article onboarding. Gen AI image processing now helps to automatically detect and correct visual errors and enriches around 6,000 articles daily with missing material composition data. As a result, up to 85% of articles are now ready to go online in less than three days, representing a 10 percentage point improvement over the past two years and reducing friction for partners while accelerating time-to-sale.

Scaling B2C with a team of apps

In the B2C segment, the group achieved strong pro-forma growth across all three consumer apps - consisting of the brand-led Zalando app, the trend-focused ABOUT YOU app, and the deal-driven Lounge by Zalando app - that help to target distinct customer needs. ABOUT YOU and Lounge by Zalando delivered double-digit growth rates. The first quarter saw a strong start to the spring/summer season and particularly robust performance across lifestyle categories including Sports, Kids & Family, and Beauty.

As a result, the number of active customers reached a new high of 62.3 million, an increase of close to 10 million year-on-year, driven by the inclusion of ABOUT YOU and solid stand-alone growth across all three apps. Average spend per customer rose 2.9% to 305 euros, driven by larger average basket sizes as the number of orders per active customer remained stable.

The partner business grew significantly faster than the retail business across both Zalando and ABOUT YOU, reflecting the platform’s continued transition towards a higher-margin, capital-light model. Zalando’s loyalty programme continued to deepen customer engagement as membership grew to 18.5 million Plus members.

Scaling the B2B operating system

In B2B, where Zalando is building the operating system for fashion and lifestyle e-commerce, the company continues to unlock digital business opportunities for brands and retailers and reduce the complexities of cross-border e-commerce in Europe. Sales gained 23.6% to 297 million euros, adjusted EBIT rose to 26 million euros and adjusted EBIT margin rose to 8.6%. ZEOS successfully launched its first pilot partners in Norway and added two new sales channels, bringing the total to 26 markets and 20 sales channels.

“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,” said Zalando CFO Anna Dimitrova. “Synergies are ahead of plan, our underlying business is strengthening every day, and our full-year guidance stands.”

The Q1 2026 financial report, as well as the earnings presentation for analysts and investors, is available on the Zalando Investor Relations website. Zalando will report the results for the second quarter 2026 on 4 August, 2026.             

*in line with market expectations

(end)
 

Zalando at a glance

Key figures*     In m EUR Q1/26** Q1/25 Group GMV 4,294.3 3,528.4 Percent growth  21.7 %  7.4 % Group revenue 2,996.1 2,419.5 Percent growth  23.8 %  7.9 % B2C revenue 2,707.2 2,182.5 B2B revenue 296.7 240.0 Reconciliation revenue -7.7 -3.0 Adjusted group EBIT 64.8 46.7 Adjusted group EBIT margin  2.2 %  1.9 % B2C adjusted EBIT 38.2 41.0 B2B adjusted EBIT 25.6 5.8 Reconciliation adjusted EBIT 1.0 0.0 Net working capital -239.9 -85.9 Capital expenditure -69.7 -33.6 Net income -87.6 9.9

 

Key performance indicators*       Q1/26*** Q1/25 Active customers (million) (last 12 months) 62.3 52.4 Number of orders (million) 69.5 58.5 Average orders per active customer (last 12 months) 4.8 4.9 Average basket size (EUR) (last 12 months) 63.1 61.2

* Definitions are available in the Annual Report 2025
**  Including ABOUT YOU results from the 11 July 2025 closing date onwards
*** LTM-based KPIs are calculated based on the last twelve months including ABOUT YOU for the full year, while all other KPIs consider ABOUT YOU starting on 11 July 2025.

 

About Zalando

Founded in Berlin in 2008, Zalando is the leading European technology platform for fashion and lifestyle. Connecting 62 million active customers with more than 7,000 brands across 29 markets, our business is built on a unique AI-powered data and infrastructure platform. For our customers, our multi-app approach - comprising Zalando, ABOUT YOU, and Lounge by Zalando - delivers an inspiring, highly personalized shopping experience, serving different customers with different needs. For our partners, we are building the operating system for e-commerce. Through ZEOS, Tradebyte, and SCAYLE, we open our logistics, software, and service capabilities to brands and retailers, enabling them to seamlessly scale their businesses across borders.

For further information, please visit: corporate.zalando.com/en

 

Contact

Media inquiries           
Sarah Syed       
Business & Financial Communications   
presse@zalando.de 
 

Investor/Analyst inquiries
Patrick Kofler 
Investor Relations
investor.relations@zalando.de