Zalando sales grew 23.8 percent to 2.99 billion euros in the first quarter of the year, reflecting what the company said was synergies after its purchase of another German online retailer, About You, in 2025.
When About You is taken out of the equation, Zalando sales grew 3.4 percent. Prior to the purchase of About You, which was finalized in the third quarter of last year, Zalando’s revenues had been growing around 7.6 percent on average quarterly.
Zalando’s GMV also grew in the first quarter of 2026, rising 21.7 percent to 4.29 billion. GMV measures how much inventory the platform has moved and is usually higher than company revenue. Minus About You, GMV would have grown 6 percent.
“We are very satisfied with the progress we’re making in strategically scaling AI innovations and integrating About You,” Zalando co-chief executive officer Robert Gentz said in a statement.
Zalando has had trouble making profits in the past because of the significant servicing costs of running an online platform. In the first quarter, the company’s earnings before interest and taxes came in at minus 79.7 million euros. This was partially the result of costs and marketing related to the About You purchase, the company said in a statement.
Zalando’s EBIT margin also looked worse this quarter. During the same period in 2025, it had been close to 1 percent. During the first quarter of 2026, it was 2.7 percent in the red.
The latter results were well below market expectations. Other results, including revenue and GMV, only came in slightly below analyst’s expectations.
Zalando also measures its success by the number of active customers and orders it gets every quarter. Over the first three months of 2026, the online fashion platform had 62.3 million active customers who placed 69.5 million orders. That reflected increases of 18.8 percent and 18.7 percent respectively.
Those customers placed slightly fewer orders, with each buyer making 4.8 purchases instead of 4.9. But the value of their orders went up, rising from 61.2 euros per basket in the first quarter of last year to 63.1 euros per basket this year.
On the back of the first quarter results, Zalando confirmed its guidance for the full year “across all metrics.” It expects further growth over 2026, with revenue and GMV increasing somewhere between 12 and 17 percent. Zalando forecasts adjusted EBIT to come in between 660 and 740 million euros.
