Zalando enhances designer offering and names new ambassador

European fashion and lifestyle e-tailer Zalando is enhancing the “designer experience” on its website and app with a new luxury boutique-style space for designer brands.

The revamped ‘Designer’ destination will offer a “fresh and inspirational shopping experience,” explains Zalando, allowing designers to “narrate their story, unveil collections, campaigns and collaborations through an array of dynamic design elements in a distinctively elevated, curated space”.

Lena-Sophie Roeper, director of designer and luxury at Zalando, said in a statement: “We can see that customers are increasingly looking for inspiration, personalisation and engaging new experiences. They are also continuously more interested in designer brands on Zalando, with luxury brand searches on Zalando steadily growing.

“For us, it presents an opportunity to become the inspirational destination for everyone from loyal customers regularly shopping for contemporary and luxury items, to first-time purchasers."

Zalando targets designer spending with new premium destination

The ‘Designer’ destination offers a range of “heritage, advanced contemporary, designer and high-end streetwear brands as well as rising stars and timeless classics”. This includes Lardini, Aspesi, Bally, Helmut Lang, Proenza Schouler White Label, Victoria Beckham, Missoni, Rabanne, Vivienne Westwood, 032C, GCDS, Peter Do, Ahluwalia, Ralph Lauren, and Emporio Armani.

To celebrate the new launch, Zalando has signed a year-long partnership with British-Japanese musician and actor Rina Sawayama as its new ambassador for the designer and luxury fashion offering in 2024. The European e-tailer said that Sawayama would “tapping into key moments in the fashion calendar throughout the year”.

The enhanced ‘Designer’ destination and partnership with Sawayama is linked to Zalando’s focus on superior customer experience and inspiration, added the e-tailer, and follows on from the introduction of ‘Stories on Zalando,’ a new immersive visual-first shopping experience, created in collaboration with Highsnobiety. This initiative invited customers to discover “exciting fashion and culture trends, personalities, and exclusive brand collaborations,” placing a spotlight on designer brands such as GmbH, and Ludovic de Saint Sernin, as well as exclusive collaborations, such as MM6xChenpeng.