Marks & Spencer (M&S) has announced a significant expansion of its partnership with Zalando, securing a new agreement that will see Zalando’s Business-to-Business (B2B) logistics arm, ZEOS, manage M&S’s entire online direct-to-consumer operations across continental Europe.
Set to launch in early 2026, the deal tasks ZEOS with fulfilling M&S online orders across 21 European markets. This strategic move will allow M&S to consolidate its inventory into a single system, streamlining operations. The retailer aims to significantly enhance operational efficiency, reduce costs, and improve the overall customer experience by offering faster deliveries and better returns processing.
This development strengthens a relationship established in 2022, where M&S initially used Zalando Fulfilment Solutions (ZFS) to service European customers through major marketplaces like Zalando, About You, and Amazon.
Mark Lemming, Managing Director-International, M&S, states, the agreement reflects the retailer’s commitment to reshaping its international business for sustained global growth. He emphasizes, M&S is now prioritizing ‘bigger, better partnerships’ to leverage advanced infrastructure, like ZEOS’s, to scale its European online footprint. The move is central to M&S's long-term strategy of building a scalable international model through strong strategic alliances and omnichannel growth.
This announcement follows a challenging period for the British retailer, which is still recovering from a cyber attack in early 2025. The breach severely disrupted online operations, forcing M&S to suspend website orders for six weeks and leading to a drop of over 40 per cent in online home and fashion sales.
M&S’s underlying pre-tax profits for the H1, FY25 declined by 55.4 per cent to approximately $232 million. The estimated total cost of the cyber incident is around $172 million, which is lower than the initial fear of $380 million. Following the restoration of its delivery services, Stuart Machin, CEO expressed confidence that trading is expected to be ‘fully recovered by the end of the financial year.’
