Main fashion marketplaces in Europe(1)

This is true even though it is probably one of the sectors that has suffered the most from the drop in sales caused by COVID-19. Even so, they are always at the forefront of online marketing, so it is worth looking at their example to see how they are evolving.

In particular, we are going to focus on the way they exploit marketplaces, because it is worth studying how they have verticalized to gain more specific sales channels.

We have said it before: it is not in its finest moment. Consumer buying habits have changed over the past few months and, as a result, priorities have shifted to other niches.

The fashion market is largely seasonal. It is also tremendously reactive to social life, and those are two things that have come to a halt since March 2020 (although they are slowly picking up the pace).

But that does not mean its customers have disappeared. As we can see in this Statista chart, they have a huge potential audience that already buys clothing, footwear and accessories online.

Before going into the subject of each of them, it is worthwhile to make another important reflection. When we talk about marketplaces, there are two types of them:

As we saw in the previous graph, the European market stands out within the sector. Therefore, it is not strange to see that vertical marketplaces dedicated to third-party brands' clothing and footwear have an important specific weight in their strategy.

Let's get to know the main players.

Zalando is one of the European benchmarks and was founded in 2008 by two Berlin entrepreneurs. Originally its orientation was even more vertical, since they only sold shoes online.

We could say that the success was instantaneous because, in their first year of life, they were already able to turn over 6 million euros.

Progressively, they were expanding their product categories, going from shoes to all kinds of clothing, accessories...

Today, it is a giant that sells in 17 countries and that, under the umbrella of its marketplace, shelters more than 4,000 different brands, including its own collections of the Zign brand created by them.

They are open to multiple online business models, including second-hand products, to directly attack competitors such as Wallapop or Vinted, which have a strong market in that niche. They also have their own sales club which, under the name Zalando Privé presents time-limited offers for its members.

The story of this brand goes back even a few years before Zalando. Asos was originally called: As Seen On Screen, and basically sold the looks worn by celebrities on British television.

It was in 2001 when they realized that they had a business with a lot more to look forward to. It was then when they began to sell other types of clothing and shortened its brand´s name to the current (much more manageable and easy to remember).

Currently, it sells more than 100,000 products in a stock that it shares between third-party brands and its own.

Asos is known for its conscientious and ethical positioning.

It is particularly striking how, starting from a concept that could be called frivolous, they have completely turned its orientation around. Their brands are inclusive so that no one can feel discriminated against for having a different body or a different orientation. They even have specific lines for neutral gender, taller than average or overweight people.

They want you to find your style however you are and feel however you feel in what they call the "democratization of fashion."

They also support independent brands outside of the mainstream circuit. For this they have Asos Marketplace, their platform for this type of brands.

La Redoute has a prominent place among European fashion marketplaces. This French brand is, in addition to everything else, an example of digital transformation.

Its history dates back to 1837, when the idea of eCommerce did not even seem like science fiction. A family from the north of France opened its own textile factory that, almost 100 years later, would become one of the benchmarks of catalog sales in that country and later in the rest of Europe.

As for its marketplace, it stands out from the others mentioned above because it opens up the range a little more, including also the home and furniture category.

It combines exclusive brands with other more affordable ones, and even has its own collections of fashion, textiles and home furnishings.