A lot has changed since we first started encouraging brands to sell on Zalando. Germany’s largest fashion-focused platform now sees 300 million monthly visits from more than 27 million active shoppers. Annual sales have skyrocketed to €5.4 billion annually.

That means fashion retailers lucky enough to sell on this popular marketplace have access to a very profitable segment of fashion-focused consumers.

However, there is a catch.

To be successful on Zalando, you have to be REALLY good at delivering on consumer expectations for shipping and returns.

The Challenges of Zalando Fulfilment 

When it comes to fulfilment, Zalando maintains some of the industry’s most stringent requirements.

For starters, the marketplace expects all sellers to offer site-wide free deliveries and 100-day free returns.

That’s requirement number one.

Then there’s the fact that Zalando only lets you use specific carriers in each country, such as La Poste in France, DHL in Germany and Hermes in the UK. There are no exceptions to this rule. So if you’re a new seller and don’t already work with these specific companies, you’ll need to build those relationships before working with Zalando. 

Excelling at fulfilment on Zalando can be a challenge, to say the least.

In an e-commerce category notoriously plagued by fulfilment challenges — it’s difficult to preserve profit margins when so many purchases are returned because of poor fit and personal taste — this marketplace has some of the industry’s strictest standards. Roughly half of the products sold on Zalando are sent back, which means you’ll need to have a rock solid returns strategy in place.

Unless you have a big budget and departments dedicated to different areas of fulfilment, these activities will require a lot of your time and resources. And the more time you spend optimising fulfilment, the less you’ll have to market, sell and strategise.

That’s where Zalando Fulfilment Solutions (ZFS) comes in. By using ZFS, fashion retailers can take advantage of Zalando’s sophisticated fulfilment model to provide outstanding delivery and return experiences for consumers — all while being freed to focus on more strategic areas of the business.

The Many Benefits of Zalando Fulfilment Solutions

More and more Zalando sellers are turning to Zalando Fulfilment Solutions, and with good reason. 

Relying on the marketplace to warehouse, pick, pack and ship products is arguably the easiest, fastest way to meet all of Zalando’s requirements. The entire operation is tailored specifically to the expectations of fashion and lifestyle shoppers. So your consumers are virtually guaranteed to enjoy meaningful, memorable experiences from first click to last mile.

And because of shared warehouse infrastructure and deliveries, brands that use ZFS have been known to lower fulfilment costs by as much as 25%.

How to Get Started With Zalando Fulfilment Solutions

Whether you’ve been selling on Zalando for years or are just getting started, ZFS is a great option to consider. This program can free you to focus on growing your business while Zalando does the heavy lifting on fulfilment and returns. 

That’s not all.

Sellers that use Rithum can rely on the platform to streamline Zalando Fulfilment Solutions. Our new ZFS integration lets sellers submit orders, see stock and more — all within the same central platform used to manage marketing, selling and fulfilling across multiple marketplaces and sales channels. 

Ready to get started with Zalando Fulfilment Solutions? Download the fact sheet to see how Rithum’s ZFS integration provides the edge you need to compete in the competitive online fashion industry.