Zalando posts strong Q1 as ABOUT YOU and AI lift results

Retail Gazette reports that Zalando delivered a strong first quarter, with group revenue rising 23.8% to €3.0bn and group gross merchandise volume (GMV) increasing 21.7% to €4.3bn. Retail Gazette and a markets.ft/EQS-News summary report adjusted EBIT rose 38.7% year-on-year to €65m, and the adjusted EBIT margin improved to 2.2% from 1.9%, supported by €10m of synergies attributed to the ABOUT YOU acquisition. Retail reporting attributes a pro-forma GMV increase of 6% and pro-forma revenue growth of 3.4%. An EQS-News release reported via markets.ft states Zalando expects to deliver €40m of synergies from the deal during 2026 and has confirmed full-year guidance of 12-17% GMV and revenue growth and adjusted EBIT of €660m-€740m, as noted in the company disclosures summarized by Retail Gazette and markets.ft.

Retail Gazette reports the company expanded its Zalando Assistant to include beauty recommendations, enabling personalised product suggestions across fashion and beauty in a single conversation. The article states close to 10 million customers have used the Assistant year-to-date versus 6 million across all of 2025. Retail Gazette and Wallstreet-online report Zalando is deploying AI-driven robotics across fulfilment centres with partner Nomagic, automating about two million picks per month, and using generative AI to accelerate product onboarding.

Industry-pattern observations: Large ecommerce platforms that combine rich longitudinal customer data and logistics scale tend to see disproportionate returns when applying recommendation and automation technologies at scale. Expanding a conversational assistant across categories typically increases user engagement metrics, while robotic automation often reduces manual handling time and shifts labour mix in fulfilment.

Editorial analysis: For practitioners, Zalando's results matter for two reasons. First, the reported numbers show AI and M&A integration contributing to both top-line growth and operating leverage in a consumer retail context, offering a case study for applying personalization and automation across catalogue and logistics. Second, the pace of adoption highlighted-near-term growth in Assistant users and robot picks-illustrates how production-grade generative and robotics systems can be scaled in European retail operations without public claims of exotic new models. This is an example of applied AI delivering incremental business KPIs rather than headline research breakthroughs.

Observed patterns in similar transitions: Monitor quarterly disclosures for:

• •metrics tying AI features to conversion or retention (reported usage, conversion lift, average order value)
• •run-rate synergies from ABOUT YOU versus one-off integration benefits
• •operational metrics at fulfilment centres such as picks per hour and fulfilment lead times as robot deployments scale. Also watch corporate investor communications and EQS-News filings for any changes to guidance or new, quantified AI investments

Retail Gazette quotes Zalando co-chief executive Robert Gentz: "Our unique data and infrastructure that we built over 17 years ... are a massive advantage when supercharged with AI."