By Linda Pasquini
(Reuters) -Zalando said on Thursday it plans to expand in sports clothing as the online fashion retailer announced a German soccer partnership and reported higher third-quarter growth, lifting its shares nearly 10%.
Although fashion and lifestyle spending in Europe was still “pretty flat”, online channels have gained traction in recent quarters, Zalando co-CEO David Schroeder said on a media call.
Zalando, which has expanded into sports including soccer, running and cycling in a bid to bring in younger buyers as well as increase its appeal among men, on Thursday announced a five-year partnership with Germany’s DFB national soccer federation.
Under the DFB deal, Zalando’s logo will feature on all training and pre-match kits for the German men’s, women’s and youth teams, in addition to a range of marketing rights.
“(Sports) is a fast-growing online category with double-digit growth rates across the continent,” Schroeder said, adding that running had done particularly well.
“Now we obviously aim to replicate the same thing with football,” Schroeder said.
The collaboration, which comes ahead of the soccer World Cup next year, did not include exclusivity rights for distribution of the national team kits, a Zalando spokesperson said.
Zalando said its gross merchandise volume (GMV), a key metric measuring the value of all goods sold, rose 21.6% to 4.2 billion euros ($4.9 billion) in the quarter, mainly driven by the inclusion of newly acquired About You.
If this business had been part of the group in the same period a year ago, the GMV increase would have been 6.7%.
Zalando shares were up 9.8% to 24.85 euros at 1017 GMT.
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Reporting by Linda Pasquini in Gdansk, additional reporting by Helen Reid in London; editing by Matt Scuffham and Alexander Smith)
