“Normalization” is a positive word.

It suggests the good old days, tranquility - everything that many people long for after almost two years of pandemic.

If, however, the operating profit of Zalando “normalizes”, then that means after the lockdowns: It falls from a good 118 million euros to 9.8 million euros in the quarter.

The bottom line is that Zalando even slipped into the red with an after-tax loss of 8.4 million euros.

Bastian Benrath

Editor in business.

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Zalando founder Robert Gentz ​​and his CFO David Schneider had to dig deep into the rhetorical bag of tricks on Wednesday morning to get positive messages from these numbers - after all, these are the first results that Zalando is presenting as a freshly baked Dax company.

The "normalization" is shown by the fact that the margin on the operating result (EBIT) of 0.4 percent would be back where it was in the autumn quarter two years ago, before the pandemic.

This is likely to have triggered nostalgia among investors, because a year ago it was 6.4 percent.

Sales grow

However, the two of them were able to announce good news: Europe's largest online fashion retailer was successfully launched in six other countries this year. Therefore, sales grew by 23.4 percent to 2.3 billion euros in the past quarter from July to September. In doing so, he exceeded the expectations of analysts. The expansions to the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as well as to Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia also cost money - corresponding to the lower profit. For investors, the bad news prevailed: In the morning, Zalando's share price fell by a good 5 percent.

The platform for fashion and cosmetics now has a good 46 million customers in 23 countries. There is hope that indicators independent of the expansion point in the right direction. The average number of orders per customer rose from 4.8 to 5.1 over the past year. During the same period, the average value of a purchase increased slightly from EUR 57.20 to EUR 57.50. This shows that despite the reopened stores, more people are shopping on the Internet than before: "We have a higher starting point," Gentz ​​said on Wednesday.

Zalando advertises in particular to customers who want to shop more sustainably.

Gentz ​​announced many strategic initiatives for 2022, which, among other things, should develop the fashion industry more towards a circular economy.

Zalando recently started a repair service in Berlin.

In September, it also acquired a stake in the Finnish start-up Infinited Fiber Company together with H&M and Adidas.

This produces a special fiber called Infinna from textile fibers with a high percentage of cotton.

According to the manufacturer, Infinna has the same soft feel as cotton, is biodegradable and does not contain any microplastics.

The garments made from them can be recycled again after their use together with other textile waste in the same process.

Annual forecast remains unchanged

Financially, Gentz ​​sees the company well on its way to the target set in the spring of achieving a gross value of all goods sold via the platform of more than 30 billion euros by 2025. Accordingly, the Berlin company confirmed its outlook for the year as a whole. Accordingly, the operating profit should be in the upper half of the range of 400 to 475 million euros in 2021. Sales should climb by a maximum of 31 percent to 10.5 billion euros per year.

In the past quarter, goods were sold for a good 3 billion euros, an increase of 25 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

When it comes to targeting the value of goods, Zalando should also help stationary retailers: Under the “Connected Retail” label, the platform enables retailers such as C&A to sell their product range online via Zalando.

The Berlin company receives commissions and money for logistics services.