ZFS invoice structure

After joining Zalando Fulfillment Solutions (ZFS), you will receive a ZFS invoice by email on a monthly basis, typically within the first 5 days of the month. This invoice contains charges for all logistic events from the previous calendar month from all markets you’re live in. A logistic event refers to any service provided by ZFS that generates a billable item, i.e. inbound item, storage item, outbound order, return order, etc. This invoice is additional to your monthly Partner Program balance receipt and you receive it separately. 

The invoiced amount must be transferred to the recipients specified in the invoicing document within the time frame listed in your contract. In the example below, this is Zalando Fulfillment Solutions. You can find your payment terms in your ZFS contract under section § 8 Point 3.

Your monthly received ZFS invoice contains a PDF file with a summary of the total invoiced sum on the first page. It contains a short overview of all your logistic costs such as storage, outbound shipping, returns shipping, VAS (value added services), Stock Return(previously Return To Merchant or RtM) , etc. that took place in the past month. Each of these costs are explained in the next section of this article.

Please find an example of the first page a typical ZFS invoice below

When a delivery arrives at a Zalando warehouse, it is processed as follows: once the delivery is accepted, it is scanned into the warehouse using the labels that the partner has placed on the outside of each box / end of each pallet. The pallets are then moved to the buffering area where they are unpacked and received. Each individual item is then scanned. Once these items have been received into our warehouse management system, they are stowed.

This is a charge applied each time an item is received in an unsellable state (e.g. in a torn polybag) and we need to make adjustments (e.g. put the item in a new polybag) in order to have it in a sellable condition.

Please also note the differences between VAS and refurbishment: VAS is for inbounded goods, whereas refurbishment (e.g. cleaning, steaming, repacking, relabeling) affects customer returns. Please be aware that VAS and refurbishment don't cover any kinds of defects; they only cover small touch-ups.

This service is related to preparing the items in the warehouse for shipping once a customer has ordered them.

This is the transportation of the item from the warehouse to the customer. The service is charged per order even if more than one package is required to send the order.

This is the transportation of an item from the customer to our warehouse / return centre once they return it. We charge per returned package.

This is the handling of items that have been returned by the customer to Zalando. It contains the picking, sorting and packing of each item.

These are the fees that we charge per item per day for storing partners’ stock in our warehouses, and applies only to offerable stock. We don’t distinguish between commodity groups or the gender related to the items.

For example: 30 items x 30 days x storage fee per day = storage fee

Preparing items that are in our warehouses to be sent back to the partner who owns the goods at the partner's request. It includes picking and packing of the items, whether defective items or not.

Transportation costs for Stock returns. We organise the Stock return transport and charge you the cost for the return. We will invoice you for this service quarterly. Your invoice will include the CNR numbers you need for proper identification.

In the period from 15 October to 31 January each year, ZEOS will charge a surcharge of 0.15 EUR on outbounded goods prices. This Peak Surcharge applies to all customer orders placed during this time. 

A fuel surcharge percentage applies to all outbounded and returned goods shipped through ZEOS Fulfilment.

Here's how we calculate it:

• The fuel floater baseline (‘Fuel Baseline’) is set at 1.36€/litre, which includes duties and taxes. 

• The source for all current fuel prices is the weighted EU average prices including taxes (“Ø EU - 27”) as published on a weekly basis on the Oil Bulletin of the European Commission.

• The share of energy costs in total costs is 20%. 

• The applicable fuel surcharge percentage (or Fuel Surcharge%) is then calculated by the following formula:

The applicable fuel surcharge percentage will be re-calculated monthly and applied one month later.

As of January 2024, a number of non-compliance fees have been introduced to your ZFS contract for several of our operational processes to ensure they are executed in line with our Delivery terms. Below we review the fees that might show up on your invoicing - for more information please review the pricing Appendixes of your contract. 

This is the charge we apply if the difference between the items declared in your zDirect forecast before the freeze period and those announced in zDirect via your Shipping notice exceeds +/- 5%. It is calculated monthly, and the charge is applied per item.

Deviation in % = (Forecasted volumes - Announced Volumes)/Forecasted volumes)

This is the charge we apply if the difference between announced in zDirect via your Shipping notice and those on the dispatch file exceeds +/- 2%. It is calculated monthly, and the charge is applied per item.

Deviation in % =(Announced volumes - Dispatched Volumes)/Announced volumes

This is the charge we apply if the difference between the items declared in your zDirect forecast before the freeze period and those announced in any Stock return requests via zDirect exceeds +/- 5%. It is calculated monthly, and the charge is applied per item. 

Deviation in % = (Return to merchant forecasted volumes - Raised via zDirect Stock return requests) / Return to merchant forecasted volumes)

This is the charge we apply per shipment not delivered on the confirmed date and time, and without prior notice of minimum two hours by the partner/freight forwarder to Zalando, whether using ZFS or ZEOS.

This is the charge we apply per shipment which must be refused due to non-compliance with the ZFS Delivery terms (e.g. due to faulty loading, over/under-delivery of boxes or missing delivery documents). 

This is the charge we apply per shipments delivered without a booked time slot. 

This is the charge we apply if a palletized shipment does not comply with the requirements outlined in the ZFS Delivery terms, chapter 1.5.4 (Transport loading). According to our Delivery Terms, we only accept wooden pallets with the standard Euro-pallet dimensions (length 1200mm x width 800mm x height 144mm). More information on EPAL pallets can be found on the official EPAL pallets website.

Below we review the fees that might show up on your invoicing - for more information please review the pricing Appendixes of your contract.

This is the charge we apply per return shipment not picked up by the Partner/Merchant on the agreed date.

This is the fee we apply per item not compliant with ZEOS quality requirements (quality of product and/or safety) or ZFS Delivery terms in case of further processing of the item.

This is the fee we apply per item belonging to shipments that cannot be received directly into the warehouse and are moved to quarantine storage for further processing (e.g. articles weren’t included on the dispatch list). 

This is an optional service fee applied only when explicitly requested by the partners for sending items to the Zalando Offprice liquidation channel at the end of seasons. For ZEOS partners selling on non-Zalando channels, the stock return fee applies. The charge is calculated per liquidated item.

Why am I seeing more items in storage than my actual stock? 

What you see in your invoice is the number of items multiplied by the number of days in storage. For example, if a partner had 3,000 items in stock per day for a 30 day month, you would multiply 3,000 items x 30 days x storage cost.

Do we pay the ZFS invoice separately to the commission we receive from Partner Program?

Yes. The ZFS fees are invoiced separately. But in your payment advice you will see an overview of all payout amounts per market you are currently active in, as well as the offsetting of the fees for ZFS and logistic costs where applicable.

What is the transportation cost that I see in some of my invoices and why is it not included in my ZFS contract?

By transportation we refer to the shipping costs related to the “Return to Partner'' request from the partner, or defect returns. The cost depends on the number of boxes / pallets. 

What are the VAS charges?

As mentioned above, VAS is a charge applied each time an item is received as an inbound good in an unsellable state (e.g. in a torn polybag) and we need to make adjustments (e.g. put the item in a new polybag) in order to have it in a sellable condition. 

Refurbishment (e.g. cleaning, steaming, re-packing, re-labelling) affects customer returns. The following pictures are examples of VAS:

Why am I seeing items (EANS) that are not mine? 

Sometimes items get misplaced manually. In this case, please highlight what does not belong to you and contact us immediately. We will check your request internally and create a refund where applicable in your next invoicing round.

If you have any invoice-related queries, please reach out to us through our support form. 

Please select topic: Zalando Fulfillment Solutions and then ZFS invoice. There you can choose one of the three request types specifically about invoices: Question about invoice, Request of invoice, Request of itemised report.