Active users on the platform reached 41.8 million at the end of the quarter! Zalando raises its full-year outlook for the first quarter

According to foreign media reports, German e-commerce platform Zalando has raised its full-year outlook for fiscal 2021 thanks to its "outstanding performance" in the first quarter .

Online retailer Zalando has achieved its strongest quarterly growth since its public offering, with revenue rising 46.8% to €2.2bn (£1.9bn) while profit increased 4.2% to €93.3m (£80.7bn) .

It had 41.8 million active customers on its platform by the end of the quarter , driving a 55.6% increase in gross merchandise value to €3.2bn (£2.7bn).

Chief Financial Officer David Schroeder said an influx of new customers (who typically return fewer items) , customers buying essentials such as kidswear and makeup instead of party dresses, and lower liquidity all contributed to the higher return rate.

Looking ahead to the current financial year, Zalando said it now expects sales on its platform to grow by 26% to 31% to between €10.1bn (£8.7bn) and €10.5bn (£9.1bn), with profits for the current financial year to be between €400m (£346m) and €470m (£406m).

“In the first quarter of 2021, Zalando achieved its strongest growth since its listing in 2014,” said David Schröder, Zalando’s chief financial officer. “We see that the platform business is developing at an increasingly faster pace, creating benefits for customers and partners and enabling us to make significant progress on our journey towards ‘the starting point of fashion’.”

Zalando is developing rapidly. At the end of 2020, Zalando's users increased by nearly 8 million compared to 2019, the number of orders increased by 40 million to 186 million, sales increased from less than 6.5 billion euros to 8 billion euros, the company's net profit increased from 99 million euros to 226 million euros, and the company's stock also rose by 300%.

To capitalize on its momentum, it will continue to expand its network of European fulfillment centers, adding five more by the end of 2023. In its bid to capture more than 10% of the European fashion market, Zalando ’s two new warehouses in Rotterdam and Madrid will open this year, and it will begin construction on three more warehouses in France, Germany and Poland.

It is reported that Zalando also stated that it has launched a stock repurchase plan of up to 200 million euros starting from May 7.

Zalando

Germany

First quarter