In the future, German online fashion retailer Zalando wants to ship clothes from every physical store and has launched a trial project in Berlin for interested retailers.
Central fashion hub
“The idea is simple: if you are looking for a fashion product, we will point you into the store’s direction“, CEO Robert Gentz said in a FD interview. “You can then choose to actually visit that store or you ask us to ship you the item. We are now trialing this idea with Bodycheck’s collection in Berlin.”
The system is Zalando’s next step into becoming fashion’s central hub. Currently, clothing brands can already sell their collections on Zalando, but the online retailer would like to take it one step further and offer physical stores’ product range as well.
To make that happen, Zalando will invest heavily into systems that make it possible for both brands and stores to sell on Zalando. This year’s investment will be 200 million euro, which is 5 % of the company’s total turnover. Last year, the company only invested 60 million euro.