Onboarding stage 1: Access

Welcome to the first stage of your onboarding journey with Zalando: Access! 

During this stage, you will be setting up the basics for your account such as providing your compliance details and filling in company and country profile information on zDirect, as well as ensuring your articles' master data (e.g. silhouettes, seasons, size chart, brand code) is accurately reflected in our system. 

Enter the following compliance details on zDirect:

• Know Your Customer (KYC) questionnaire - submit your one-time KYC questionnaire

• Value Added Tax (VAT) identification number - familiarise yourself with the EU VAT regulation and UK VAT regulation. Learn more about ensuring your VAT details are submitted correctly on zDirect.

• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) or Unique Identification Number (UIN) - this requirement applies for Partners choosing to sell in Germany, Austria, France and Spain.

Submit the following company and country setup details on zDirect:

• Company profile -  fill in the Company profile section under “Set up your account" on zDirect. It consists of the two key sections

• Business details

• Contact details

• Bank details

• Billing details

• Fulfillment setup (the information you need to provide will depend on your chosen fulfillment method)

• Compliance details (the information you need to provide will depend on your chosen sales countries/channels and the One Stop Shop status)

  • VAT registration, 

  • Fulfillment (ZFS), 

  • Outbound Warehouse details

• Country profile - once you submit the company profile for review, you will be able to start working on the country profile for each of the countries you plan to sell in. This is where you provide all the relevant details specific to your country or countries:

  • Business details

    • Contact details

    • Bank details

    • Billing details

    • Fulfillment setup

  • Compliance details

Read more about Market setup:

• zDirect onboarding: Market setup

Master data is information about your articles that we need in order to start mapping your articles. The process of mapping your articles will depend on your integration method. If you integrate via Direct Integration using the zDirect User Interface (UI), you will work closely with your onboarding manager to map the articles. If you integrate with one of Zalando’s preferred third party integrators, you will work closely with the integrator and send final confirmation to the onboarding manager.

• Silhouettes : You’ll need to specify the categories of articles you want to onboard (e.g., textile, accessories, etc.)

• Seasons - You’ll need to specify the season(s) for the articles you want to onboard. In the Zalando Partner Program, seasons are denoted as

  • AW (Autumn Winter)

  • SS (Spring Sumer)

  • YRB (Year Round Basic)

• Size chart: You’ll need to specify the size chart for your articles according to their product category (e.g. textile). Please check the Size charts library on zDirect as a first step. For articles that have a single size, retrieve one of our "One size" size charts (available for accessories, textiles, etc.). If you are a retailer or distributor whose articles are already selling on Zalando, you may not have to fulfil this requirement.

• Brand logo - You’ll need to share your brand logo with us.

Ask your integrator to provide you with FTP credentials for each country/sales channel. These credentials are required for the successful setup and configuration of the integration.Your integrator can provide the credentials via email.

Please note that having your FTP credentials timely triggers the configuration in our system, allowing the connection between Zalando's system and your Integrator's system. Without completing this task we cannot proceed with collecting your articles' master data and move you to the Article mapping stage.

Zalando is checking if your business and compliance details match our agreement. You will receive an email with the status of the financial validation, approved or rejected. If it is rejected, you will receive the reason and can work together with your Onboarding Manager to fix it.

Additionally, we will check whether your EPR id number has been entered in zDirect. If not, your Onboarding Manager will reach out to ask you to do so.

Zalando pre-checks the following data to ensure they are accurately reflected in our system: 

• Technical partner invitation if applicable (i.e. integrator, in-house technical team or third party integrator)

• Seasons

• Silhouettes

• Brand code

• Size chart

Without completing this task, we cannot move to the Article Mapping stage.

Some requirements may take considerable time to obtain and/or validate. Therefore, we would suggest prioritising completing the following requirements:

• Platform compliance: Ensuring your VAT details are submitted correctly on zDirect

• How to submit your EPR numbers in zDirect

• Submit your company profile and country profile details on zDirect simultaneously. If one is missing, we cannot proceed with the financial approval process.

• Having your FTP credentials timely triggers the configuration in our system, allowing the connection between Zalando's system and your Integrator's system. Without completing this task we cannot proceed with collecting your articles' master data and move you to the Article Mapping stage.

Your main point of contact throughout the Access stage is your Onboarding manager. They will be guiding you through your onboarding journey and will inform you about any possible blocker that might delay your estimated go-live date. This way, you can address it in a timely manner and avoid any delays.

You can also reach out to your Sales manager for additional support and guidance.

Next up: Article mapping stage!