If you design accessories or manufacture apparel, expanding into Europe often leads to one major destination. Zalando is a dominant force in the continental shopping industry, serving as the main point of discovery for millions of shoppers. For small and midsized brands, designers and marketers, it represents an opportunity to reach new audiences without building physical stores in multiple locations.
This guide walks through what Zalando is, how its marketplace ecosystem works and what you need to decide before joining.
Zalando started as an online shoe seller in Berlin in 2008. Now, it is one of the largest fashion and lifestyle platforms in Europe. It serves more than 50 million active customers and operates in 25 European markets, making it a vital place for shoppers and brands to meet.
Over time, it evolved from a classic online retailer into what it calls an ecosystem for fashion and lifestyle e-commerce. This means it combines logistics, marketing services and technology to support the brands on its platform.
Zalando’s growth is timely because the European online apparel market is expected to reach $154.78 billion by 2030. This is driven by evolving customer interests, new technology and the widespread adoption of online shopping channels. Zalando sits at the center of this expansion.
The Partner Program is the primary way for brands to get into the platform. In this model, you sell your own stock directly to customers through the Zalando website and app, while using its audience, tools and, if you choose, shipping services. You still set the price and selection, but the platform handles payments and customer service on the front end.
Zalando controls access quite carefully. You cannot simply sign up — sales teams usually invite brands that meet commercial and operational standards. Brands that succeed with the Partner Program usually meet the following criteria:
You need certified carriers with an EU-based return address if you want to use your own logistics instead of Zalando Fulfillment Solutions. Historically, Zalando promoted a 100-day return promise. In 2024, it shortened the window to 30 days, while keeping free returns. Check the current policy in each market you plan to enter.
Once a Zalando sales manager reaches out, you go through a standardized onboarding process. This covers a brand readiness check, contracting and know your customer (KYC) documentation, integration, testing and launch.
The integration phase is where you connect your technical systems to the platform. This ensures that your inventory updates immediately each time a customer buys a shirt or a bag. You also need to provide valid EAN codes for each item and ensure all photos meet Zalando’s specific studio guidelines.
Listing is just the beginning. Your long-term performance depends on how you manage product data, stock, pricing and customer experience across channels.
When you sell on Zalando, you gain access to their traffic, but you trade away control over the user journey. The customer belongs to the marketplace, not to you. The entire user journey, from discovery and checkout to customer service and returns, is filtered through the Zalando platform.
This means you have limited opportunities to showcase your brand's unique personality or build a direct, long-term connection. The packaging and the product itself become your most important brand ambassadors. High-quality materials, thoughtful unboxing experiences and clear branding on the item itself are essential for making a memorable impression.
Many successful sellers use a dual-channel strategy — they use Zalando for its enormous reach and ability to attract new buyers, while they simultaneously run their own direct-to-consumer (D2C) website to cultivate a loyal following. This approach allows you to use the marketplace as a powerful customer acquisition tool, while your own site serves as the hub for building lasting brand equity and gathering valuable first-party data.
Your product feed serves as your storefront, so use high-quality images and provide detailed descriptions. Your inventory data must be precise. If you sell on multiple channels, keeping stock levels in sync prevents overselling and cancellations, which can hurt your selling rating.
For brands handling complex catalogs, manual updates can lead to errors. Tools like Shoppingfeed can sync your inventory, pricing and order data from a central source into Zalando and other channels, then push orders back into your main system for fulfillment and reporting.
Zalando will suit some brands more than others. Weigh the pros and cons of strict requirements, sales impact and less branding control against the ability to reach a large audience and logistics support. In the rapidly growing European e-commerce market, Zalando can be a powerful component of a larger, multi-channel strategy.