do.BETTER – Diversity & Inclusion Report 2023

Embedding D&I into the heart of Zalando

March 20, 2024

We believe that an integrated, holistic approach will accelerate our efforts toward lasting change, both for Zalando and the wider fashion industry.

Robert Gentz, Co-CEO

About this report

At Zalando, we want our company and culture to reflect the diversity of our customers. In 2021, we released our do.BETTER strategy, solidifying our plans to build a workplace where respect and inclusive behavior are second nature. Simultaneously, we desire to create the most inclusive assortment and representative content for our customers.

In our strategy, we approach Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) through the pillars of Talent, Leadership, Customer and Partner. Each pillar holds equal importance for our growth, learning and impact. From our leaders to our Employee Resources groups, together, we can develop lasting foundations, equitable opportunities and a company that is truly #InclusiveByDesign.

In this downloadable report, we outline our commitments, progress and areas for improvement in 2023. In the 11 stories shared below, our colleagues demonstrate their passion and dedication to D&I through their work and projects at Zalando. Alongside our partners and customers, we are closer than ever to creating a Zalando where everyone feels welcome.

Collage: two pictures of Zalando employees working on laptops

Download

D&I Report 2023

(pdf, 7.91 MB)

Together with Zalando

At Zalando, we want to highlight the incredible people working with us to create change and champion D&I in the fashion industry. In the videos below, we invite you to meet some of the individuals and communities that are driving inclusion and helping us develop best practices.

Talent & leadership

We believe in the power of leadership to cultivate a positive and inclusive workplace for our employees. To integrate the do.BETTER ethos into the fabric of our community, we enable our leaders to become role models and allies, using best practices, toolkits and trainings that will support them on their journey to becoming D&I champions at Zalando.

Below, you can read first-hand accounts from Zalando leaders and colleagues about our projects and progress in areas such as Women in Tech, Women in Leadership, Disability Inclusion and Employee Resource Groups.

Daniel Motino – Discover how we plan to improve the inclusion experience for disabled employees in the workplace. Read the story

Veronica Schilling – Discover how we aim to create equal opportunities for all genders through a data-driven approach. Read the story

Andrew Watts – Read about the learnings of an executive dedicated to supporting women to build the technology of tomorrow. Read the story

Jennifer Walderdorff – Learn how our new ERG strategy supports employee communities and members of the Black Employee Connection. Read the story

Dominik Bertram – Find out how our leaders can become allies for people on their team by supporting personal and peer-to-peer development. Read the story

Johanna Salewsky – Discover how D&I survey findings were translated into tailored action plans at German Logistics Centers. Read the story

Customer & partner

Zalando has the great privilege of serving around 50 million customers across Europe and working with some of the most inspiring brands globally. We work collaboratively with partners to gain insight into the communities we wish to serve, and to drive diversity and inclusion in the fashion industry. Our dedicated employees strive to place inclusion front and center in our online offerings, assortment and community outreach.

Below, you can meet some of our outstanding colleagues who are helping to reshape Zalando, and their 2023 activities to improve customer experience and widen our pool of diverse partners.

Galina Charni sitting at a yellow table smiling at the camera

Galina Charni – Read about how we are improving our digital accessibility to make our assortment and shopping experience truly inclusive. Read the story

Caleb Spahr sitting at a table, smiling at the camera

Caleb Spahr – Representative storytelling makes people feel included. Learn about our new guidelines for content creation. Read the story

Philip Hammermeister putting clothes on a hanger

Philipp Hammermeister – Learn how designers are rethinking the power of fashion and community research for Adaptive collections. Read the story

Melika Sasani – Check out how shoe sizes became the topic of collaboration for real and lasting change for our customers and industry. Read the story

Ahmad Aloqla – Discover how our volunteers were involved in the 2023 Special Olympics World Games, setting a powerful example. Read the story

D&I in numbers

Zalando began as a Berlin-based online shoe retailer in 2008 and has since grown into a leading European online destination for fashion and lifestyle. With offices and tech hubs in eight locations, a logistics network of 12 fulfillment centers across Europe and 15 outlet stores across Germany, we serve around 50 million customers in 25 European markets.

Our business attracts talent from around the globe, with our colleagues representing more than 140 nationalities worldwide. We are proud of the growing diversity within the Zalando community of around 15,000 employees.¹

¹ All employee-related data is now collected and reported per calendar year and therefore may differ from previous reports. It excludes employees at Highsnobiety. To acknowledge that some of our D&I initiatives involve early-career hiring, we've included apprentices, working students and interns.

Employee diversity, three pie charts for 2023: Gender: 47.1% Women, 52.9% Men, over 0.1% diverse; Generation: 1.0% under 21 years; 21.6% 21-30 years; 44.8% 31-40 years; 10.7% 51-60 years; 3.6% over 60 years; Internationality: 38.3% Germany, 8.2% Poland, 5.2% India, 4.2% Italy, 4.0% France, and others

Gender equity

Women account for almost half (47.4%) of our workforce and the overall population. We therefore want to work proactively to support women's advancement through equal opportunities, mentorship, fair pay, and by mitigating bias.

Our commitments were written in the binary sense. However, our dedication to D&I includes recognizing gender identity beyond the binary and taking an intersectional approach toward our strategies and interventions internally at Zalando. This for example means that when we design interventions to boost the number of women who are working in tech, we design them for all those who identify as women.