For months now, consumers have been able to buy their clothes in shops again. Internet retailer Zalando is also feeling this – and is preparing its investors for quieter times.
The online fashion retailer Zalando is adjusting to a more leisurely pace again after strong growth during the Corona crisis.
“We are seeing a clear return to normal,” said Zalando co-founder and boss Robert Gentz on Wednesday at the presentation of the business figures for the third quarter. “Most of the retail trade is functioning according to the usual pattern again.” For the coming year, he expects the entire fashion industry, including stationary retail, to return to the level of demand from before the crisis, Gentz said.
As an internet fashion retailer, Zalando had profited greatly from the online boom during the ongoing pandemic and recorded, in some cases, rapid sales increases of up to 50 percent in individual quarters. Now, in the third quarter, growth continues, but at a slower pace. The revenues between July and September of this year were around 2.3 billion euros. That was around 23 percent more than in the same quarter of the previous year.
The portal had 46.3 million customers in the same period. Compared to the previous year, the number has increased by more than ten million. It is becoming apparent that the new customers will remain loyal to the platform, Gentz said. In the coming year, the main focus will be on building further trust and strengthening customer relationships.
Zalando has not noticed any delivery bottlenecks, which are currently preoccupying the sports and sneaker industries in particular due to factory closures in China and Vietnam. “We expected such restrictions,” said Gentz. That is why the warehouses are well filled, at least over the winter. In the coming year, however, there could still be longer waiting times for individual products – even if Zalando, as a platform with numerous partners, has better answers to these problems than many competitors.
The group has expanded its offering to six new countries in the past few months. These are the three Baltic states as well as Croatia, Slovenia and Slovakia.
This caused high marketing costs, which resulted in red numbers. The bottom line was a loss of 8.4 million euros. In the previous year, when the company benefited from low discounts to customers, among other things, Zalando achieved a profit of 58.5 million euros.
Zalando is sticking to its sales forecast for the current year and continues to expect growth of 26 to 31 percent. Given the return to normal in the fashion industry, a constant 20 to 25 percent are realistic in the medium term, Gentz said.
Source From: Stern
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
