Societal Engagement and Corporate Citizenship at Zalando

It is part of our DNA to strive towards being a good corporate citizen. We want to give back, be a good neighbor to our local communities, and offer our expertise to help solve global societal problems. We started our Corporate Citizenship Program in 2015. It aims to facilitate real world solutions in line with three objectives:

• a strong social impact position in Europe and our other markets
• meaningful collaboration with communities in our fulfillment and supply chain
• a willingness to engage, enable and work with our customers to deliver positive change

Our strategic partnerships

Strengthening local communities with vostel.de

vostel.de is an online volunteering platform where people who would like to get socially involved can find suitable volunteering opportunities. In addition to recruiting volunteers and advising non-profit organizations on all aspects of their volunteer management, vostel.de organizes corporate volunteering activities (individual or group activities, pro bono work and more), and advises companies on setting up and implementing corporate volunteering programs.

As an employer, we want to play an active role in the communities around our various locations. We support our employees to do so by offering each of them two volunteering days per year. We have worked together with vostel.de since their founding in 2015. The selection of partners and projects is based on our communities’ needs and Zalando areas of expertise to ensure we drive meaningful impact. Since the beginning of our volunteering program in 2015 until Q1 2023 , almost 4,000 Zalandos have supported 365 projects through 24,124 hours of volunteering. This has created shared value for both the charities and our employees. For example, Zalando employees volunteered to mentor people impacted by the war in Ukraine for job search and integration. They also volunteered to package and distribute food for new arrivals.

Tackling societal challenges with Ashoka

Ashoka is the world’s leading network of social entrepreneurs, pioneering the field of social entrepreneurship, and identifying and supporting more than 3,800 world-class social entrepreneurs since 1980. Social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social, cultural, and environmental challenges.

Zalando first partnered with Ashoka in the 2016 refugee crisis. With both organizations based on a startup spirit, entrepreneurship and innovation, we joined forces by organizing the “Hello Festival” in Berlin. The festival brought together international problem solvers and local experts to scale the world's best integration solutions resulting in, among other things, access to free online university education and the transformation of refugee shelters into sustainable and innovative ecosystems. Fast forward to 2020, the festival has scaled to a European program that continues to support integration solutions and is active in EU policy making. The success of this partnership created a blueprint that was reapplied to our second joint collaboration in the context of the coronavirus crisis with Changemakers United.

In 2022, we collaborated again on the “Hello Europe” initiative to accelerate the impact on the migrant entrepreneurship and employment sector in Europe. This partnership helped to launch a first-of-its-kind ecosystem accelerator, aiming to transform the field of migration through a collaborative framework. The program involved over 130 leaders from 23 countries representing social innovation, government, policy, business, and academia.

Reaching people in need with humedica

humedica e.V. is an international non-governmental organization based in Kaufbeuren, Germany (Bavaria). Since 1979, humedica has been active in the field of humanitarian work with a focus on medical aid, operating projects in over 90 countries around the world.

As one of Europe’s leading online platforms for fashion and lifestyle, it has always been Zalando’s position to offer customers an individual and diverse selection of products that they can try on at home and at their own convenience. Returned articles are sold again via the Zalando Shop, Lounge by Zalando or Zalando Outlets. As an additional step, we use the opportunity to donate remaining stock to organizations such as humedica, which offers an extensive international network that helps us reach a wider group of people in need of the products we offer. Since the start of our partnership in 2015, we have made 34 donations, including collaborations on strategic response projects such as in the wake of the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria in 2023 and the donation of profits made from facemasks sales during the coronavirus crisis.

Contributing to humanitarian aid

In 2022, we donated 255,000 euros worth of in-kind donations and spent nearly 1.5M euros to support humanitarian relief efforts. We have a fast and efficient process which allows us to continuously support people affected by crises with in-kind donations as well as financial support to key strategic NGOs such as humedica, Ashoka or SOS Children’s Villages worldwide.

Our humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine

We have been deeply affected by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In response, we have tried to make a meaningful contribution to the humanitarian response. We donated money and goods to those affected by the war. Zalando, together with our employees and customers, donated almost EUR 1.5 million to support humanitarian aid for those affected by the war and projects supporting Ukrainians in Germany, as well as EUR 255,000 worth of in-kind donations. We have made direct contributions to the Polish Humanitarian Action, which is providing humanitarian aid, including food and other forms of support, to refugees fleeing to Poland. We also donate to our NGO partners, namely the Red Cross, Humedica and Save the Children, and we match donations from Zalando employees and customers.

We have co-funded a global program of SOS Children's Villages: "A Right to Family - De-Institutionalization to Reform the Child Protection System". The program aims to protect children's rights and supports the reform of alternative childcare systems and the de-institutionalization process in Ukraine. In principle, deinstitutionalization involves two processes: A negotiation process with the government about what deinstitutionalization means, followed by the implementation process.  Our funding of more than EUR 275,000 covers part of the project until April 2025. SOS Children's Villages worldwide is also working closely with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), which is co-funding this initiative.

In addition to in-kind and financial donations, Zalando has supported our local community in Berlin by sponsoring the Ukrainian Pop-Up Charity Market SKRYNYA, organized by Zalando volunteers, the European Academy of Berlin and the many people and friends of Ukraine. The SKRYNYA sponsorship supports Ukrainian creatives, including fashion, jewelry and home brands. The event was held in July and October. Over 3,000 people visited the events and more than 50 fashion, jewelry and home brands from Ukraine participated in the event.

Our response to the coronavirus

The coronavirus pandemic was a global issue that needed to be addressed by all societal players. For Zalando, as stated in the letter from our Management Board, our priority was to keep our employees safe, protect our company by keeping it operational, and to be part of the solution in the societal efforts of slowing down the spread of the virus.

We share risks and opportunities with the broader fashion industry. From the conversations with our partners, we knew that we were less affected than many others in our industry and that our platform could make a significant difference to brands and retailers during these times. We have looked into ways to support our ecosystem in these difficult times and identified the following measures.

Connected Retail

Our Connected Retail program consists of more than 5,200 active stores across 13 markets. Started during the pandemic, we continue to accelerate this initiative to support brands and retailers. Between April 2020 and March 2021 we waived the commission fee for all CR stores and switched to weekly payouts. Stores in markets outside of Germany benefited from lowered commission until the end of 2021. The program is currently available in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Spain, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Austria, France, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy.

Supporting Changemakers

Building on our existing partnership, Ashoka and Zalando launched a joint program to help alleviate the immediate disruption the coronavirus was causing in communities across Europe, as well as to address the longer-term consequences of the crisis on our society and economies. Changemakers United leveraged Ashoka’s well-established network of social innovators, Zalando’s workforce and our Hello Festival’s proven approach of accelerating and replicating solutions to a crisis. We selected 20 social innovators in the areas of providing health care, protecting vulnerable groups, education models and tools, reliable and accessible information, and solutions for the economic and political effects.Through the program, the innovators have been supported with funding, mentoring and pro-bono expertise from partner companies and individuals in order to support the scaling of their solutions to the crisis.

Distributing “Boxes of Joy”

Social distancing and school closures have been particularly difficult for underserved families and children. While we could not change this situation, we wanted to provide those affected with a distraction and make this time at home more joyful, in true Zalando fashion. Between April and June 2020, we sent "Boxes of Joy" containing Zalando products to nearly 38,000 children and adolescents between the ages of 4-18 in 17 European countries. We were able to reach these children and adolescents through the network of the following organization, amongst others: milaa e.V, kein Abseits, Tentaja, SOS Kinderdorf Berlin, Märkisches Kinderdorf Ludwigsfelde, SOS-Kinderdörfer weltweit Hermann-Gmeiner-Fonds Deutschland e.V., humedica and Save The Children. We also want to thank DHL and Nike for their partnership and donations to our community members in need. Additionally, we are very thankful to the Zalando volunteers for packing the boxes.

Facemask sales & donation

In April 2020 Zalando has expanded its fashion assortment to include a variety of non-medical, textile masks produced by both our partner brands and our private labels. Over a million masks were sold between the months of April to July, generating close to 780,000 euros of profit, which we donated to our partner humedica for their global response to the coronavirus. As part of their response, humedica supports countries that have been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus with the distribution of food packages, hygiene kits and school supplies, as well as the provision of medical care in refugee camps.

From July 1, until the end of September2020, the profit from mask sales went to our partner Ashoka (895,000 euros) to further support the Changemakers United program and the 20 Social Entrepreneurs that are driving innovative solutions for the immediate and mid-term consequences of the crisis. As well as several mental health support programs in Berlin (1,100,000 euros).