Zalando to tap designer labels, vintage to boost sales - Reuters

Posted: 27 Feb 2020 01:20 AM PST

BERLIN (Reuters) - Zalando (ZALG.DE) plans to offer more premium and luxury ranges and move into the vintage clothing market as the online fashion retailer predicted slower sales growth in 2020 after a strong final quarter to 2019.

The logo of fashion retailer Zalando is pictured at the new headquarters in Berlin, Germany, April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

After a decade of rapid expansion to become Europe's biggest online-only fashion group, the Berlin-based company's sales growth has moderated, prompting it to expand into new areas like cosmetics and more items for men.

Zalando now plans to double its premium and luxury product ranges by the end of 2023, noting it had recently added high-end brands like Moschino Couture and Alberta Ferretti.

"It is lucrative, it's increasingly digital and it's growing," Lena-Sophie Roeper, Zalando buying director of premium and luxury, said, referring to high-end products. She also said younger shoppers were increasingly mixing high and low-end fashion as well as vintage.

Co-Chief Executive Rubin Ritter said selling more premium products should help boost Zalando's average basket value, a metric which has been under pressure as consumers shop more frequently on their smartphones but spend less each time.

In 2019, Zalando already registered 20 million searches for luxury brands it does not currently carry, Ritter said.

Major online luxury fashion players include Farfetch (FTCH.N), which listed in 2018, Richemont's (CFR.S) Yoox Net-A-Porter, and MyTheresa, which plans to list in New York this year.

Zalando also wants to tap shoppers' growing appetite for second-hand or vintage clothes due to rising environmental consciousness. The retailer will offer curated pre-owned fashion from the third quarter of 2020, also buying items from its customers and allowing them to sell to each other.

Ritter said some customers were telling the company they only wanted to buy pre-owned items in future. "It can be an integral part of our business model," he said.

Zalando canceled a news conference planned for Thursday as a precautionary measure due to the coronavirus but Ritter told a call with reporters the business was not currently impacted.

Zalando forecast sales growth of 15-20% for 2020, down from 20.3% in 2019, but hopes gross merchandise volume (GMV) - sales made on by itself or its partners - will grow 20-25%, not taking account of any negative impact from the coronavirus.

Finance chief David Schroeder said Zalando could benefit if people avoid stores and shop online. He said the company was not worried about supply disruptions as most of its spring/summer stock was already in its warehouses.

Zalando's shares were down 7% by 1001 GMT, making them the biggest faller on the German mid-cap index.

Fourth-quarter sales rose 19.5% to 2 billion euros ($2.17 billion), while adjusted earnings before interest and taxation came in at 110.4 million euros, both ahead of average analyst forecasts after a strong "cyber" week around Black Friday.

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Zalando's British rival ASOS (ASOS.L) had beat forecasts for sales over Christmas, reporting a 20% rise in retail sales to 1.075 billion pounds in the four months to Dec. 31.

Zalando's profitability has been squeezed by heavy investment in warehouses and faster delivery, but it has predicted a longer-term recovery in margins as it offers brands more logistics and marketing services - rather than just being an online seller.

Around 40% of items sold under its partner programme with brands were shipped by its transport service in the fourth quarter, and Schroeder said he expects to reach more than 50% this year.

Editing by Riham Alkousaa/Maju Samuel/Jane Merriman

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Vintage flea market moving from North Park to La Mesa - pacificsandiego.com

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 08:32 PM PST

Looking to be reunited with your fave bell bottom pants from the 1970s? How about some old-school Converse high-top gym shoes? Anyone ready to break out the phonograph needle and put on some Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass or Peggy Lee record albums? Or perhaps you're in the market for some upcycled furniture, jewelry or luggage.

Soon, you'll need look no further than Grossmont Center in La Mesa to fill those retro needs.

The popular San Diego Vintage Flea Market, with its ever-growing cadre of vendors, is on the move. It left its North Park parking lot home behind The Observatory earlier this month in order to move to the La Mesa mall starting Sunday, March 22.

The flea market was originally planned to be held in the Grossmont Center parking lot in-between a fitness center and several restaurants, covering the same footprint where the monthly First Friday Vegan Market is held.

But the city of La Mesa's plan to charge Grossmont Center about $2,000 for a permit to have the event in the lot led to a decision by Grossmont Director of Marketing and Public Relations Trevor Moore to put sales booths inside the mall. Moore said the plan is to have vendors sell their wares up and down Grossmont Center's inside corridors, in front of brick-and-mortar businesses.

He said a "makers market" that sets up inside the mall the same way has been very successful as have quarterly animal adoption events that circulate throughout Grossmont Center.

Moore said he didn't expect any of the mall's resident stores to be bothered by the monthly Sunday vintage visitors, that there are no directly competing "secondhand" type stores in the center. In fact, some shop owners were looking forward to new customers checking out the mall's offerings, he said.

And that sounds good to Michelle Enders, who has been running the San Diego Vintage Flea Market since its 2012 beginnings in a small venue at the Heartland Masonic Lodge in El Cajon.

"I think there are so many benefits for going to Grossmont Center," said Enders, a one-time Helix High School student and Fletcher Hills resident who moved the vintage market to North Park in 2013 when it outgrew those El Cajon roots.

What started out as a handful of vendors grew to 32 in El Cajon and blossomed to 52 when it first started in North Park. Its February event squeezed in more than 100 vendors.

"I feel like Grossmont offers us a bigger location, which we need because we have completely outgrown North Park by leaps and bounds," Enders said. "They've also offered us amenities like giving us security, trash disposal and restrooms. There's also free parking."

The market has literally been gaining ground over the years along with a huge surge in popularity. Enders said it draws more than 10,000 customers to its one-Sunday-a-month event in the University Avenue parking lot.

Enders said she has known since 2016 that the move was coming because of a pocket park that has been in the city of San Diego's plans for several years.

Vendors like April Cromer say there are some mixed feelings about the move but that she is ready to give the new spot a try.

Cromer owns Lady Cromer Jewelry, a line of hand-cast jewelry, and has been selling her crafts at the market for nearly three years along with her partner Rosalynn Landazuri of Lodestone Collection.

Cromer said she and Landazuri believe the change to new digs in La Mesa actually may be a boon for some of the market's customers.

"We love the San Diego Vintage Flea Market," Cromer said. "It is a great community of awesome people, shoppers and vendors alike. We're sad to lose our current location because it is so convenient and we get a lot of foot traffic. But just from talking with people about the move we found out that a lot of our customers live in La Mesa.

"I think if the North Park crowd is willing to travel a little bit like the La Mesa crowd has been doing for so long, it will be a great show. And hopefully our customer base will expand even more at the new location. All in all, we hope that the move to La Mesa will help make the flea market even bigger and better that it already is."

Moore said the vintage market's move is helping herald Grossmont Center's coming 60th anniversary next year. He said the mall already has San Diego County buzzing about the First Friday Vegan event and annual animal adoption events inside the mall.

"People come from all over California, even Arizona, to shop at this market," Moore said. "A lot of the trend now is in vintage clothing, with artisans and collections by people who do really know what's in style. I'm happy we'll have another market that will keep up with changing trends of what people are getting into in 2020."