Zalando is reducing its global range. The Berlin online retailer confirmed this when asked by FashionUnited. Previously, various media reported about it.
The online retailer is currently examining its brand portfolio in order to increase the relevance of its range. In the past two years, the product portfolio of the Zalando Fashion Store has grown rapidly: while around 700,000 products were still on offer in the fourth quarter of 2020, by 2022 there were already over 1.8 million.
But the needs of customers and demand have changed, so the online retailer now wants to focus more on curating and inspiration. “This year the focus is on profitable growth and simplifying the organization to become more innovative and faster,” says Zalando’s statement.
Zalando wants to become simpler and more efficient
The company wants to strategically reposition itself and become simpler and more efficient. The global review of the brand portfolio is part of this plan.
In the long term, Zalando wants to grow in its existing markets instead of opening up new markets, a Zalando spokesman said over the phone. In return, the local brands should have more say in the development of the product range.
“In order to attract customers’ attention and keep it in the long term, we will increase the local relevance of our range and curate it more. That is why we are currently reviewing the brand portfolio on Zalando. Since this is an ongoing process, we cannot currently provide any information on how many brands this affects. This process should also go beyond all categories and price segments. Not only small brands are necessarily affected by the streamlining of the portfolio, the ‘relevance’ depends on the interest and demand of the customers.
“Having an unrivaled selection is good. But what we really want is to offer our customers a relevant and curated selection,” said Zalando CEO Robert Gentz at a press conference in March. The stronger curation is also due to the cooperation with the Berlin streetwear platform High snobietywhich Zalando took over last year, will be implemented.