Zalando expands premium category with Beckham, MM6, Versace and more

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Sep 10, 2019

In the battle to become the top mass-appeal online fashion retailer, attracting premium brands is crucial and Germany’s Zalando said it has added over 15 high-price names such as Victoria Beckham, Philip Lim, Versace Jeans Couture and MM6 to its Premium category.

The move comes as Premium has had the second strongest season in a row and is the fastest-growing business category within Zalando.

The company said that “in becoming the Starting Point for Fashion” it’s “committed to offering the broadest fashion assortment, from high to low, with items relevant to each of our over 28 million active customers.”

Its Premium assortment currently has around 240 brands (out of the site’s 2,000+ total) and this is important in targeting shoppers with an aspirational outlook.

Zalando Head of Buying Premium, Lena-Sophie Röper said the company has been on-boarding “numerous new brands to the Premium portfolio” in the past three years and continues to identify what it thinks will be in demand to potentially add to its line-up. “In selecting our brands we try to find a good balance between global and local relevance,” she added.

This season it has focused on “local heroes”, such as Marc Cain for and from Germany, Repetto (France), Liu Jo (Italy) and Decadent Copenhagen (Denmark), as well as adding “advanced contemporary brands like MM6, Phillip Lim, Vivetta and Victoria Beckham.”

She said the company “has a unique standing within Europe, as we have the most holistic Premium destination online.” The company feels that having a broad assortment is central to its growth aims and “Premium serves everyone and at every age”.

The category is also key as the company works to boost its sustainable assortment with “brands like Save the Duck, Filippa K, 120% line, FTC, Polo Ralph Lauren, PS Paul Smith, Bruuns Bazaar, Designers Remix, Drykorn and Closed doing some exciting things with regards to sustainability,” the exec said.

Zalando is backing its Premium offer with marketing and is currently running a dedicated campaign in Italy that “invites customers to celebrate their own uniqueness with the message that true luxury is expressing oneself in total freedom, starting from the look.”

Röper added that “we’ll expand even further with locally relevant brands, support upcoming local heroes, and elevating the portfolio continuously further. The demand is higher than ever.”