Zalando to Continue Strong Growth After Successful Finish to 2018

February 28, 2019
Financials
  • Strong finish to 2018 in Q4: 24.6% revenue growth, 7.1% adjusted EBIT margin
  • FY 2018: EUR 5.4 billion revenue, EUR 173.4 million adjusted EBIT
  • Outlook 2019: 20-25% GMV growth, revenue growth at low end of range;
    EUR 175-225 million adjusted EBIT
  • Zalando further refines platform strategy, targets EUR 20 billion GMV by 2023/2024
  • David Schröder (CFO) and Jim Freeman (CTO) to join Management Board


BERLIN, FEBRUARY 28, 2019 // Zalando finished 2018 on a high note, growing revenues in the fourth quarter by 24.6% to EUR 1.7 billion at an adjusted EBIT of EUR 117.8 million. For the full year 2018, Europe’s leading platform for fashion and lifestyle grew revenues by 20% to EUR 5.4 billion and achieved an adjusted EBIT of EUR 173.4 million.


Growth at Zalando was fueled by 26.4 million active customers (2017: 23.1 million) placing 116.2 million orders throughout the year (2017: 90.5 million), while traffic increased to 3.1 billion visits (2017: 2.6 billion). The fourth quarter marked particularly strong growth, with close to one billion visits and 1.3 million new active customers - the highest quarterly active customer increase in five years.


Co-CEO Rubin Ritter says: “2018 had its challenges, but we focused our efforts in the fourth quarter to pull off a strong finish to the year. Our performance in the fourth quarter gives us confidence that our long-term growth plans are well on track.”


Going forward, Zalando will disclose Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) on a quarterly basis to increase transparency over the size of its platform. GMV describes the total amount that customers spend on the Zalando platform on merchandise from both wholesale and Partner Program. In 2018, Zalando grew GMV by 21.1% to EUR 6.6 billion.


In 2019, Zalando aims to grow GMV by 20-25% and revenues at the low end of this range. Zalando expects to continue to grow profitably and achieve an adjusted EBIT of EUR 175-225 million. The company will continue to invest into logistics and technology and plans capital expenditure of around EUR 300 million.

 

Zalando Focuses Strategy on Becoming the Starting Point for Fashion

To ensure future growth and push its platform transition forward, the Zalando Management Board has further refined its strategy and focused the organization on one clear goal: to become the starting point for fashion, reaching EUR 20 billion GMV by 2023/2024.


Zalando aims to deepen the relationship with its customers by tailoring its offer and focusing on an even better experience for its most loyal customers. The Zalando membership program Zalando Plus is an important enabler and will be rolled out internationally, with two countries to launch in 2019.


Co-CEO Robert Gentz says: “We are convinced that our platform strategy, with a strong customer focus and clear priorities, is the right path to success. We want to double down on our efforts to be the platform that all consumers naturally gravitate to when looking for fashion.”


Zalando will continue to scale its successful Partner Program, allowing brands to sell directly to customers through the Zalando platform. In 2018 more than 250 partners integrated with the Zalando Partner Program, which accounted for about 10% of Zalando’s GMV. Zalando aims to increase this share up to 40% by 2023/2024, with Zalando Fulfillment Solutions and Zalando Marketing Services playing key roles in successfully scaling the Zalando platform.


Co-CEO David Schneider says: “We enable brands to succeed online by providing them access to European digital consumers and by giving them the opportunity to invest into growth through our services.”

Zalando Enlarges Management Board

To reach its goals, Zalando will adapt the responsibility of its three Co-CEOs and extend the Management Board to five members as of April 1, 2019.


David Schneider (Co-CEO) will continue to work closely with brand partners and lead Zalando’s fashion offer. Robert Gentz (Co-CEO) will take on marketing and sales, and continue to be responsible for human resources. Rubin Ritter (Co-CEO) will assume responsibility for strategy.


David Schröder has been with Zalando for nine years, and successfully developed and scaled Zalando’s operations. He will join the Management Board as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and take on responsibility for finance and operations.


Jim Freeman, currently Senior Vice President Engineering, joined Zalando in April 2018 from Amazon, where he was responsible for launching, growing, and scaling Prime Video and for launching communication experiences for Alexa and Echo devices. He will join the Management Board as Chief Technology Officer (CTO), assuming responsibility for Zalando’s product and technology strategy and execution.


Lothar Lanz, Chairman of the Zalando Supervisory Board, says: “We, the Supervisory Board, are excited to welcome two high-profile experts to the Management Board with an outstanding track record in their respective fields. The revised set-up tightens the focus of each member and secures a well-rounded view of the Zalando business on the Management Board.”

Notes to Media and Capital Markets

The company will host a press conference at 09:00 CET today, which will be streamed live at corporate.zalando.com. Subsequently, Zalando will host its Capital Markets Day at 11:00 CET today, with all sessions streamed live as well. Zalandos annual report 2018 and the earnings presentation for analysts and investors is available on the Zalando Investor Relations website. Zalando will report results for the first quarter 2019 on May 2, 2019.

Zalando Group - Key Figures (In EUR Million)

 

FY 2018

FY 20171

Q4 2018

Q4 20171

Group revenue

5,387.9

4,489.0

1,661.6

1,333.7

% growth

20.0%

23.4%

24.6%

22.2%

Fashion Store

4,967.7

4,150.5

1,539.1

1,230.7

            Thereof DACH2

2,483.7

2,150.0

763.5

634.4

            Thereof Rest of Europe3

2,484.0

2,000.4

775.6

596.3

Offprice

497.5

345.3

149.7

110.1

Other4

444.8

345.3

132.8

88.5

Reconciliation

(522.0)

(352.0)

(160.0)

(95.6)

Adjusted group EBIT5

173.4

215.1

117.8

112.6

Adjusted group EBIT margin

3.2%

4.8%

7.1%

8.4%

Fashion Store

162.0

213.7

110.9

121.5

% adj. margin

3.3%

5.2%

7.2%

9.9%

            Thereof DACH

139.9

193.5

71.1

81.9

            % adj. margin

5.6%

9.0%

9.3%

12.9%

            Thereof Rest of Europe

22.0

20.3

39.7

39.6

            % adj. margin

0.9%

1.0%

5.1%

6.6%

Offprice

35.2

27.6

11.1

1.9

% adj. margin

7.1%

8.0%

7.4%

1.8%

Other

(24.4)

(26.3)

(4.0)

(10.8)

% adj. margin

(5.5%)

(7.6%)

(3.0%)

(12.2%)

Reconciliation

0.7

0.0

(0.1)

(0.0)

Net working capital

(84.3)

(62.4)

(84.3)

(62.4)

Capital expenditure

278.4

243.9

109.0

68.2

Net income

51.2

101.6

56.1

60.1

1. New segment structure from January 1, 2018, onwards. Financial years 2014-2016 not restated.
2. Fashion Store DACH is comprised of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
3. Fashion Store Rest of Europe includes all other countries in which Zalando presently operates its online shops.
4. Other segment includes the private label offering zLabels and various emerging businesses.
5. Before expenses for expenses for equity-settled share-based payments, restructuring costs and non-operating one-time effects.

Zalando Group - Key Performance Indicators

 

FY 2018

FY 2017

Q4 2018

Q4 2017

Site visits (m)6

3,137.2

2,563.5

960.7

735.1

% growth

22.4%

28.7%

30.7%

30.5%

Mobile visit share (% of site visits)7

79.3%

70.7%

81.6%

72.1%

Change vs. comparable prior period

8.7pp

5.1pp

9.5pp

4.0pp

Active customers (m)8

26.4

23.1

26.4

23.1

% growth

14.4%

16.2%

14.4%

16.2%

Number of orders (m)9

116.2

90.5

34.1

25.8

% growth

28.4%

30.8%

32.1%

31.5%

Average orders per active customer

4.4

3.9

4.4

3.9

% growth

12.3%

12.6%

12.3%

12.6%

Average basket size (EUR)10

57.2

60.6

57.2

60.6

Group GMV (billion EUR)11

6.64

5.49

2.05

1.63

Headcount

15,619

15,091

15,619

15,091

6. Number of series of page views from the same device and the same source (via websites, mobile sites, tablet sites or apps). The series is considered ended when a page view is not recorded for longer than 30 minutes.
7. Tablets, mobile sites and apps.
8. Number of customers placing at least one order in the last twelve months irrespective of cancellations or returns.
9. Number of customer orders placed in the measurement period irrespective of cancellations or returns. An order is counted on the day the customer places the order.
10. GMV divided by the number of orders.
11. GMV is defined as the value of all merchandise sold to customers after cancellations and returns and including VAT, dynamically reported. It does not include B2B revenues (e.g. Partner Program commission, Zalando Marketing Services or Zalando Fulfillment Solutions) and other B2C revenues (e.g. service charges like express delivery fees) – these are included in revenue only. GMV is recorded based on the time of the customer order.

 

Contact for Media

Alexander Styles
Corporate & Financial Communications
alexander.styles@zalando.de
+49 30 20968 2022

Contact for Investors and Analysts

Patrick Kofler
Investor Relations
patrick.kofler@zalando.de
+49 30 20968 1584

Press Material

Zalando at a Glance 2018

Zalando SE Graphic 2018 at a Glance (jpg, 1.45 MB)Download