Beauty on Zalando: from new brands to new inspirational content

Olga, what kind of beauty brands can our customers find at Zalando and are there any recent additions that you are especially excited about?

On Zalando overall and in Beauty specifically, we focus on offering our customers a quality assortment of globally known and locally loved brands. I’m very excited about the launch of the brand  Sol de Janeiro, and the styling tool brand, ghd, on our platform. Sol de Janeiro’s range of products is available in our ten Beauty markets. As far as styling tools, industry professionals trust ghd, so we are pleased to launch a range of the brand’s products in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, and Sweden. In addition to those brands, we’re offering a diverse range of beauty products across different price points. Our assortment ranges from iconic brand names, such as Maison Margiela and Victor and Rolf to social-first brands that solidified themselves through social media marketing first and foremost.

We also offer customers trendy and niche brands, like The Ordinary for clever and affordable skincare and star Korean Beauty (K-Beauty) brands, such as Beauty of Joseon and Abib. We have also onboarded electronic beauty device brands over the last two years, including Philips, and well-being products from Rituals Home. Other ‘local hero’ brands (i.e. brands that are founded in one of our markets and are also most popular there) that we proudly offer include Susanne Kaufmann from Austria, Rituals from the Netherlands and Inglot from Poland.

Zalando’s origin is in footwear and later, fashion. Could you talk about why we added beauty to the assortment?

We launched our Beauty category in 2018. Beauty is very complimentary to fashion - it’s often an integral part of one’s style. We want to offer our customers a wide, credible and exciting selection of beauty products so that they can shop their entire fashion look - from clothes to accessories to beauty - in a seamless cross-proposition shopping experience. Our Beauty offering is currently live in 10 markets: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Zalando recently started offering a more elevated shopping experience in its Designer proposition to bring a luxury boutique feeling online. What role does beauty play in this regard?

Also in beauty we are focusing on growing our offer of prestige and luxury cosmetic and beauty brands. Various luxury and premium brands such as Augustinus Bader, Shiseido, Mugler and Noble Panacea are already available at Zalando. We have also added a luxury hub within our Beauty proposition where these brands are represented in an elevated way. To support a seamless cross-proposition shopping experience, our prestige and luxury beauty products are also highlighted within the Designer fashion assortment so customers can move between these propositions with ease and get inspired.

Speaking of inspiration, how are you inspiring our customers to discover beauty products?

We’re finding new ways to make our beauty experience exciting and inspiring. This spring, we revamped our Beauty Home space, adding new inspirational content.This includes the curated experience called ‘Hot on Social’ where we feature new brand launches with attractive offers. We also offer a section dedicated to ‘K-Beauty’, reflecting one of the key trends on social media. Other new features include the ‘New Arrivals' section  for ’Hot Beauty Drops’ and the ‘Shop by beauty needs’ hub to guide customers who are looking for specific skin, hair or nail features. In our German store we additionally offer a dermacosmetics hub.

Last year, we launched Stories on Zalando, expertly curated content in visual-first formats such as short videos. It is now also included in the Beauty shopping experience. This summer, we will pilot a regular Beauty live shopping show in Austria, Germany and Switzerland so customers can discover beauty brands they’ll love. Top talents and experts will be invited to the show to demonstrate how a product looks like and how it can be used and combined creatively.

What role do inclusive Beauty brands play in Zalando’s assortment?

We want to be welcoming to everyone and offer a truly inclusive assortment that reflects the diversity of our customers. In Beauty, for example, we focus on brands that cater to all skin types and skin tones. One of the great examples is BLACK UP, a Black-owned cosmetic brand specialising in makeup for Black skin. Other Black-owned brands we feature include Boucleme, Danessa Myricks Beauty, and Freya + Bailey. Another focus of our inclusion efforts is increasing the assortment that stems from or serves the LGBTQIA+ community with brands such as Andrew Fitzsimons. We want to add even more inclusive brands to our assortment in the future.

What excites you when thinking about Zalando, and specifically the Beauty proposition, in the future?

We excite customers interested in beauty products by offering a great assortment that includes everything from luxury beauty to electrical appliances and dermacosmetics, all complemented by engaging content.

We would like to continue to be the partner of choice for brands, particularly those looking to reach new European customers online, made possible by our access to millions of customers across Europe. We are continuously working to make our digital customer experience for beauty even more inspiring and convenient. One example is the introduction of free sampling in Austria, which allows customers to select three trial-sized products when they reach a minimum order value to make product discovery and trial easier for them. We will extend this offer to customers in Germany later this year.

Thank you so much Olga.