Our exclusive partnership with Diane von Furstenberg
A threat or an opportunity?
TikTok is trying to do business directly and avoid platforms. Is that a threat to a platform business like Zalando? An analyst would say yes. Schneider's answer is more interesting. The reason Zalando isn't worried is infrastructure. E-commerce needs a lot of it — logistics, software integration, merchandising across different channels, customer data, relationships with brands. TikTok can drive discovery, but the question is what happens next. Schneider's instinct is not to compete but to connect: how do we help brands connect there? How do we do the logistics, the software integration, the merchandising piece for brands that want to experiment on social?
Zalando is not a fashion company. It's a tech and data company that specialises in fashion.
That framing matters because it explains how Zalando thinks about partnerships. Rather than asking what products brands want to sell, the question is: what capabilities do we invest in that brands cannot easily build themselves? The answer has always shaped how Zalando builds relationships — and it's the same logic being applied now to AI.
“ Yes, I did create the wrap dress. But really, the wrap dress created me. ”
What separates the winners?
It comes down to those who understand the data, get smart about merchandising, and develop a testing and learning mentality. New brands and new players are already outcompeting others because they understand this much better. The question for everyone else is whether there is still time.
Schneider identifies a clear pattern in the brands and businesses that are already winning. They understand data. They read it well. They've become very smart on things that should be basic but aren't: when to put which product in which market at which time, how to merchandise, what product detail content actually works, what effect it has on return rates. And they test and learn constantly.
“ Brands will get more pressure — and that will somehow sort out the winners from the losers. It's hopefully a wake-up call for some of those players to adapt. ”
— Achim Berg, founder, FashionSIGHTS
A bold new chapter defined by youthfulness
Beyond the many prints and silhouettes and yards of jersey fabric, there’s a youthful spirit woven into the fabric of DVF. And it’s this same energy that led Diane to Zalando. “I’m very excited to embrace this young company with young founders, with young mindsets, and to give them my designs, my experience, my knowledge. And I think that what we are going to do together is going to be very nice.”
For Zalando, partnering with DVF is about more than celebrating the iconic brand — it’s about shaping the future of fashion. Through shared values of empowering confidence and self-expression, mixed with Zalando’s access to a highly engaged Gen Z audience and cutting-edge technology, heritage has never looked so modern.
As Diane says, “This partnership with Zalando is a marriage made in heaven.”