In its first international expansion into new territories since 2013, Zalando has announced that it will be launching 2 new sites in Ireland and the Czech Republic. And in in other news, new language options will be launching in other countries.
The online shop will open in Ireland and the Czech Republic in summer 2018, making it present in 17 European countries. The move will increase its local reach and open the offering to an additional 15.4 million people. Customers will have access to a wide assortment of fashion goods and free delivery and returns. Ireland and the Czech Republic are adjacent to current Zalando markets and will be served by existing logistics sites.
Obviously they operate as a retailer and marketplace and you can plug in if you have suitable fashion and style items for sale. We’ve written more about that here.
We are excited to bring Zalando to new customers, and we believe our unlimited assortment, personalized shopping experience, and substantial convenience offering will resonate well with Irish and Czech customers. We are tackling our expansion smartly, leveraging knowledge from our existing European markets. And we’re operating in usual Zalando style: launch, learn, iterate, and scale.
– Rubin Ritter, Co-CEO Zalando
Additionally they will be further developing their proposition in Germany and Switzerland by offering additional language versions of its online shops. From mid-summer 2018 onwards, customers in Germany will have access to an English language version of the German shop, and customers in Switzerland will benefit from an Italian language version of the Swiss shop.
One distinctive aspect of Zalando is personalisation. They use their knowledge of previous purchases to recommend and curate selections to promote and entice shoppers to return and buy more. Zalando considers customer satisfaction as a critical aspect to their business success and that’s why they promote, and are proud of, their mantra: “Free Shipping! Free Returns!”
