Expanding your business and reaching millions of customers across Europe has never been easier. The Zalando Partner Program opens the doors to an exclusive opportunity for brands and retailers, offering the possibility of selling directly on one of the most influential fashion platforms on the continent. Full control over assortment and prices, access to a vast audience and advanced tools for growth: all this in a single ecosystem. Are you ready to transform your sales strategy and grow your brand? Let’s find out together how to join the Zalando Partner Program and make the most of its benefits.
Zalando Partner Program: what it is
The Zalando Partner Program is a strategic initiative designed for brands and retailers who want to expand their business through the Zalando marketplace, maintaining full control over assortment, prices and stock. This program allows partners to sell their products directly on the platform, independently managing their offers and commercial strategies.
To facilitate the management of daily operations, Zalando provides partners with the zDirect platform that serves as a centralized access point to monitor sales performance, manage items and access up-to-date reports. Through zDirect, partners can integrate their stock with the Zalando system, simplifying the process of updating availability and prices.
In addition to the Partner Program, Zalando offers other sales models, including:
- Wholesale: Zalando purchases products from partners to resell them directly to consumers
- Connected Retail: allows physical stores to sell their products online through the Zalando platform, maintaining the management of sales and shipments.
Why join the Zalando Partner Program?
Becoming a Zalando partner offers brands and retailers numerous advantages that can accelerate the growth of their business in the online fashion sector. One of the main benefits is access to a large audience: with over 50 million active customers in 25 European countries, Zalando represents an ideal platform to expand its customer base and increase brand visibility.
Furthermore, the Partner Program allows sellers to maintain full control over their assortment, offering flexible and autonomous management of their operations. An additional advantage is the possibility of benefiting from Zalando’s consolidated reputation in the European fashion market, which can translate into greater consumer trust and increased sales.
Complete control of products
By autonomously managing the product assortment, companies can select the items best suited to customer needs, optimising the offer to maximise sales. Autonomous price management offers the flexibility needed to implement dynamic pricing strategies, allowing them to react promptly to changes in demand and competitor moves. For example, the use of competitor price monitoring software allows them to analyse the offers on the market and adjust their prices competitively, optimising sales and profit margins.
Effective stock control is essential to guarantee the availability of the products requested by customers, avoiding both out-of-stock and the accumulation of unsold products. Through accurate inventory management, you can predict future needs and make strategic decisions based on reliable data, reducing operating costs and improving overall efficiency.
Access to a very large European market
Accessing the vast European market through a platform like Zalando offers brands and retailers unprecedented growth potential. This large user base allows companies to significantly expand their reach, overcoming any geographical limits and reaching a diverse and international customer base.
Presence in numerous European markets allows brands to diversify their commercial strategies, adapting the offer to specific cultural preferences and local trends. This targeted approach increases sales opportunities and also strengthens brand recognition and reputation. Furthermore, collaborating with an established platform like Zalando offers significant logistical and operational advantages. Companies can leverage existing infrastructure to optimize product distribution, ensuring efficient deliveries and high-quality customer service.
Flexible Product Integration
The flexibility of the Partner Program allows companies to quickly adapt sales strategies to market dynamics in order to optimize their online presence and maximize revenue.
To facilitate this integration, Zalando provides several tools. One of the main ones is zDirect, the platform that allows partners to insert new items, update prices, and more than availability I would say monitor the stock present in logistics; we also add the possibility of seeing the “reasons” for returns and checking, for each item, how many returns to make and sales performance.
For partners who use e-commerce platforms such as Magento, Shopify or WooCommerce, there are integration solutions provided by third parties, such as Koongo, that facilitate the synchronization of data between their online store and Zalando. These solutions allow you to automatically transfer orders and synchronize inventory, simplifying the management of sales on multiple channels.
Furthermore, Zalando requires that partners have a technological management integration system to exchange information with the platform. This requirement ensures efficient and accurate communication between the two parties, ensuring that product, order and stock data is always up to date and correct.
In addition, access to advanced analytics and business insights through the zDirect portal allows you to optimize your sales strategies.
Leveraging Zalando’s reputation and authority
Zalando is recognized for its reliability, fast delivery times and flexible return policies, elements that have helped to consolidate its credibility with consumers.
For lesser-known brands, which often encounter mistrust from online shoppers, this represents a strategic opportunity: selling through an established platform like Zalando allows them to break down barriers of trust and offer customers a secure shopping experience.
In this way, even emerging brands can leverage Zalando’s solid reputation to strengthen their image and win new customers.
Additional services to boost your business
Zalando offers its partners a series of additional services designed to boost sales and optimize business operations. Among these, we mention the most relevant:
- Zalando Marketing Services: provides comprehensive support for marketing activities, combining data-driven insights, marketing solutions and creative expertise to help brands design memorable campaigns. Through ZMS, partners can connect with a large European audience, improving brand visibility and increasing sales.
- Zalando Fulfillment Solutions: an end-to-end service that allows partners to store their products in Zalando’s pan-European network, while maintaining ownership. When a customer places an order, Zalando takes care of the entire process, including returns management, refunds and customer service. This service facilitates the internationalization of brands, reducing logistics costs and ensuring high delivery standards.
How to become a Zalando partner: the requirements to meet
To join the Zalando Partner Program, brands and retailers must meet a series of specific requirements to ensure effective collaboration and compliance with the platform’s standards. For this reason, it is essential that partners provide all the necessary documentation to start the onboarding process. This documentation includes detailed information about the company, relevant certifications and other documents requested by Zalando. All information must be communicated to your Sales Manager, with the exception of the Know Your Customer questionnaire that will be requested following the signature of the Partner Program contract.
In addition, partners must ensure that their products meet all quality requirements set by Zalando. This includes adhering to product safety guidelines and complying with relevant regulations.
Finally, it is essential that partners have a legal representative or importer within the European Union, as well as a return address located in the EU, to ensure efficient returns management and compliance with customs regulations.
Commission costs
The commissions applied to partners vary depending on the product category and the value of the product sold. Generally, these commissions range between 5% and 25% of the selling price of the item. For example, for some categories of footwear with a price below €49, the commission may be 5%, while for other categories or price ranges, the percentage may be higher. These commissions are determined based on specific criteria established by Zalando, which take into account both the type of product and its price.
Fully understanding the commission structure is essential for partners because it directly affects the pricing strategy and the margins of the products offered on the platform. Careful planning, based on knowledge of the applicable commissions, allows sellers to optimize their offers and maintain high competitiveness within the Zalando marketplace.
Become a Zalando Partner with BrandOn Group
If your company is interested in joining the Zalando Partner Program, it is essential to face the journey with the right preparation. The platform offers great opportunities, and to make the most of them it is essential to avoid mistakes and not overlook important details that could compromise your sales experience. Relying on expert professionals can make the difference: with the right support, you will be able to optimally manage your presence on Zalando, optimize performance and maximize results. Contact us and find out how BrandOn Group can become the ideal partner to guide you step by step within the program.
