German e-commerce giant Zalando returned to growth in 2024, after two years of struggling with the post-pandemic period.
Zalando notched revenues of 10.57 billion euros over last year, reflecting growth of 4.2 percent. In 2023 and 2022, Zalando revenues had fallen by almost 2 percent or remained static, after the company profited from booming pandemic growth.
Zalando revenues rose slightly every quarter in 2024, ending with 8 percent growth in the fourth quarter and revenues of 3.3 billion between October and December last year.
“Our ecosystem strategy … has already contributed to a strong financial performance in 2024, and we now accelerate our execution efforts and invest to capture future growth,” Zalando co-chief executive Robert Gentz said in a statement. Gentz was referring to Zalando’s change of strategy in March last year to what the company calls a “pan-European ecosystem for fashion and lifestyle e-commerce.”
The company decided to follow Amazon’s lead by using its logistics hubs and software services to attract more business-to-consumer and business-to-business opportunities, alongside existing services for fashion consumers.
Zalando’s gross merchandise value, or GMV, grew 4.5 percent to hit 15.3 billion euros in 2024. GMV measures how much inventory the platform has moved and is usually higher than the company’s revenues.
Zalando also counted the most active customers it had ever had, with an increase of 4.5 percent to 51.8 million shoppers. The number of orders placed with the platform grew 2.5 percent to 251 million and the value of each customer’s average order also rose slightly, 2 percent, to 60.90 euros per basket.
With outlays in logistics and software, Zalando has had trouble making profits in the past but this number was also positive in 2024. The company’s adjusted EBIT rose 46 percent to 511.1 million euros, higher than consensus estimates.
As a result of the 2024 results, Zalando was buoyant about the coming year, offering guidance that predicted growth of between 4 and 9 percent for both revenue and GMV. The platform now expects adjusted EBIT to increase to somewhere between 530 million and 590 million euros over 2025.
