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Zalando SE, Europe’s biggest online fashion retailer, forecast sales growth to decelerate this year as the boom in e-commerce slows down.
The Berlin-based company signalled revenue may miss analysts’ estimates for 2022, predicting sales of €11.6 billion to €12.3 billion ($13.8 billion). Analysts had been expecting €12.2 billion. The stock fell as much as 4 percent Tuesday morning.
Zalando and rivals have benefited from a rise in demand during the pandemic as consumers confined to their homes shopped online. Revenue last year jumped 30 percent to €10.4 billion. The company’s main markets are Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and it also entered six countries across eastern Europe last year including Croatia and Lithuania.
The forecast excludes any potential negative impact from the war in Ukraine. Zalando doesn’t operate in Russia nor Ukraine.
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The company has been persuading more brick-and-mortar stores to use its site to sell apparel, bolstering its push to become a platform for all things fashion. The company said last year it’s hoping to serve more than 10 percent of Europe’s fashion market estimated to be worth €450 billion in the long-term.
Zalando forecast 2022 adjusted operating profit of €430 million to €510 million.
By Thomas Mulier
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