After a weak first half of the year, the fashion retailer Zalando is more optimistic about the last few months of the year and is particularly hoping for strong Christmas business. However, headwinds are still to be expected in 2023, and the uncertainty in the market is high, said co-founder and boss Robert Gentz on Thursday in Berlin. The online company has been struggling with inflation, supply shortages and a reduced mood to buy for months. There is great uncertainty as to how large customer demand actually is at the end of the year, said CFO Sandra Dembeck. “The consumer climate has reached a new low and inflation remains high.”
According to Dembeck, one wants to present oneself well during the Christmas business and also on campaign days such as Black Friday in order to collect as much of this demand as possible. In the third quarter, sales rose by almost three percent to around 2.35 billion euros, as the online company announced on Thursday in Berlin. The adjusted operating result (EBIT) improved from EUR 9.8 million to EUR 13.5 million. The introduction of a minimum order value had a positive effect, it said. The bottom line is that the group increased its loss – from 8.4 million to 35.4 million euros.
Zalando had significantly lowered its original targets at the end of June due to the lackluster consumer sentiment. In terms of adjusted EBIT, management is now assuming that the lower end of the targeted range of EUR 180 to 260 million will be reached. Gentz emphasized that it is now less likely that Zalando will achieve the sales targets set for 2025.
The fashion retailer recorded more than 50 million active customers for the first time in the past twelve months, the number of orders between July and September rose to 58.8 million.
