Zalando plans to hire 2,000 new staff

Zalando wants to increase its sales by between 20 and 25 percent in 2015. In order to achieve this, the online fashion retailer plans to hire 2,000 new staff members this year. Especially in the tech and logistics field more employees are welcome. If the hiring spree is over, Zalando’s staff is about 10,000 people big.

Rubin Ritter, member of the management board, told journalists Zalando is not intending to take their foot off the gas. “Our ambition would be to compare ourselves to the large global Internet and ecommerce platforms such as Amazon, Google and Alibaba and really step up our game to the next level”, he said.

2 or 3% of European fashion market
According to Ritter, eventually Zalando should be able to take two or three percent of the European fashion market, that’s currently worth 420 billion euros. That would mean Zalando’s sales grow to 10 billion from the 2.2 billion euros it recorded last year.

Zalando already has around 700 tech specialists, but the German fashion retailer now wants to add more engineers, data analysts and mobile specialists, in order to support projects like a new curated shopping service and an expansion of its product range. “Being able to offer the best technology, the best personalisation, the best mobile experience is really what will set us apart from competition long term”, Ritter thinks.

Local distribution hubs across Europe
But it’s not only tech people Zalando needs and wants. It also wants more logistics experts as it’s considering setting up local distribution hubs in e.g. Italy, Spain, the UK and the Nordics to complement its existing warehouses in its home country Germany. And as it’s building up its own labels, which account for about 15 percent of sales, Zalando will also be looking out for more fashion experts.