The Maze: Europe’s fashion and lifestyle platform Zalando is growing faster by serving other retailers than by selling to shoppers. Its November 3 results put third-quarter group revenue at €3.2 billion, up 5.1%, while business-services revenue rose almost 28%. Alongside those results, Zalando announced a plan to let customers buy from other online shops without leaving its app. The first partner is home and living retailer Westwing. AI checkout is planned from 2027; it is not a general service shoppers can use today.
Source: Zalando. Zalando’s Q3 2026 summary shows merchandise traded, revenue and adjusted operating earnings; it is not a live checkout demonstration.
The Details:
The current growth engine sells services to retailers. Zalando’s business-services arm provides logistics, software for running online stores and connections to marketplaces. Revenue reached €354 million. Its adjusted operating earnings more than doubled to €42 million, and its margin rose to 11.9% from 7.1%. In practical terms, Zalando can earn money when another retailer uses its infrastructure. That is a different business from buying stock and selling it to a shopper. It is also an existing business: these quarterly gains cannot be credited to the future AI checkout service.
The planned checkout reaches beyond Zalando’s own range. The new service, called Zalando Extended, would add products sold by other online shops. Zalando says its AI agent—software acting for the customer—would complete the purchase while the shopper stays inside its app. Westwing is the first pilot partner, starting with home and living products such as bulky home goods. Shops would keep their logistics and avoid complex technical integration, Zalando says. They would also be able to buy advertising on the platform. The announcement does not specify the initial countries, merchant fees or how payments and returns would work.
Higher adjusted earnings do not mean a return to net profit. The value of merchandise traded through the group, known as GMV, rose 7.5% to €4.5 billion. That measures goods traded, rather than Zalando’s own revenue. Group adjusted operating earnings rose 10.6% to about €107 million, but consumer-business earnings on that measure fell to €64.4 million from €76.6 million. The group recorded a net loss of €18 million. Acquisition comparisons also matter: on figures treating Zalando and ABOUT YOU as a combined business in both periods, revenue growth was 3.3%, below the reported 5.1%.
MarketMaze Take: Zalando is trying to remain the place where shopping starts, even when another retailer supplies the product. Its logistics and software results show that serving merchants already has commercial weight. Extended could take that approach closer to the customer: a shop keeps its fulfilment, while Zalando keeps the customer inside its app and can sell advertising around the products.
For merchants, the trade-off would be access to Zalando’s shoppers against greater reliance on another company’s product discovery. That question travels beyond European fashion. An additional sales channel is more valuable when its fees, customer relationship and returns obligations are clear. Those terms remain unknown here. The Westwing pilot and 2027 checkout plan are the next evidence to watch; this quarter’s services growth does not prove the new model will attract profitable orders.
Sources: RetailDetail · Zalando Q3 release · TheIndustry.fashion
