Zalando enables brick & mortar to step into digital era easily

10. Oktober 2016

After connecting offline assortment of two Berlin based Adidas stores earlier this year, Zalando, Europe’s leading platform for fashion, just started offering small local retailers the opportunity to fulfill online orders to Zalando customers with their products.

Elements of Integrated Commerce

Berlin, October 10th, 2016 - Online sales in the Europe are on the rise: good for those who have their own digital strategy already. However, small stationary stores are a lot of time not able to benefit to the same extend from the online sales rise.

As part of the #IntegratedCommerce approach Zalando is steering forward and from now on also offers small local retailers the opportunity to additionally sell their products to customers of its Fashion Platform. For the first time, local retailers are able to connect to the Zalando Platform with minimal technical effort via the external partner software gax-system. The first 10 participating stores can now easily accept orders from Zalando customers and fulfill those when the matching item is available in their stores.

Jan Bartels, Vice President Logistics Products at Zalando: “With its platform strategy, Zalando is working on different ways to not only connect big brands and retailers, but for the first time to connect local stores with limited technological infrastructures. This way, Zalando becomes the digital solution for smaller retailers who are facing the challenges of digitalization and offers them a further sales channel. We see the future of commerce as a seamless shopping experience for customers, no matter if fashion items are available online or in local stores. This is why we are continuously testing new Integrated Commerce initiatives, which connect both worlds.”

Philipp Kannenberg, member of the board at gaxsys GmbH: “Piloting with Zalando helps gaxsys to enable a large number of local retailers to participate in e-commerce. We are convinced that local commerce can only exist in synergy with e-commerce, not in competition.”

Already 10 local retailers are participating in the testpilot, one of these is Tip Tap Kinderschuhe from Weilheim (Bavaria): “As a local store, our main challenge is to reach new customers, especially those of the younger generations. Thus, in order to generate extra sales, e-commerce is important for us as an additional distribution channel. So far the experience of selling online via the gax-system has been good. We are now able to sell more brands and benefit from Zalando’s vast reach. If we were running an own online shop we would need much more storage capacity and would have to schedule more personnel. With the gax-system we can flexibly decide on which orders to accept online.”

In June, Zalando already started its first test pilot to connect local stationary stores of big partner brands like adidas to the Zalando Platform. The assortment of two adidas stores in Berlin is digitized and offered online to Zalandos’ customers.

 

ACERCA DE ZALANDO
Zalando (https://corporate.zalando.es/) es el destino online preferido en Europa en cuanto a moda para mujer, hombre y niños. Nuestra oferta constituye un viaje único a través de una amplia selección de ropa, zapatos y complementos, además de una experiencia de compra inigualable. Tanto los envíos como las devoluciones son siempre gratuitos. Zalando cuenta además con alrededor de 1500 marcas internacionales, entre las que se encuentran las firmas más conocidas mundialmente, moda exprés, marcas locales y sus propias marcas. Nuestra selección se adapta a las preferencias de nuestros clientes en cada uno de los 15 mercados en los que estamos activos: Austria, Bélgica, Dinamarca, Finlandia, Francia, Alemania, Italia, Luxemburgo, los Países Bajos, Noruega, España, Suecia, Suiza, Polonia y Reino Unido. Nuestra red logística, con tres almacenes en emplazamientos decisivos en Alemania, nos permite proveer eficazmente a nuestros clientes en toda Europa. La unión entre moda, operaciones logísticas y tecnología online nos capacita para ofrecer una valiosa propuesta tanto a nuestros clientes como a las marcas de moda. Las tiendas de Zalando atraen más de 160 millones de visitas al mes, de las cuales un 65 % provenía de dispositivos móviles durante el segundo trimestre de 2016. Esto resultó en 18,8 millones de clientes activos al final del trimestre.

CONTACT ZALANDO
Matteo Bovio / Corporate Communications
matteo.bovio@zalando.it
+49 (0)176 127 591 35