Marks & Spencer (M&S) has announced an expansion of its partnership with Zalando, signing a new agreement that will see the retailer’s entire online direct-to-consumer business in continental Europe fulfilled through ZEOS, Zalando’s B2B logistics arm.
Under the new arrangement, set to take effect from early 2026, ZEOS will manage M&S online orders across 21 European markets, enabling the retailer to streamline operations by consolidating inventory through a single system. The partnership aims to enhance operational efficiency, lower costs, and improve the customer experience with faster deliveries and returns.
This development builds on a collaboration first established in 2022, when M&S began using Zalando Fulfilment Solutions (ZFS) to serve customers in Europe via Zalando, About You, and Amazon marketplaces.
Mark Lemming, Managing Director of International at M&S, said the agreement reflects the retailer’s broader ambition to reshape its international business for sustained global growth. He noted that M&S is now focused on “bigger, better partnerships” that enable it to bring the best of the brand to international markets. He added that the expanded partnership with Zalando would leverage ZEOS’ advanced infrastructure to scale M&S’s European online operations further.
The move aligns with M&S’s long-term strategy to develop a scalable international model through strong strategic alliances. Following a major restructuring last year, the retailer’s international division has focused on omnichannel growth in key global markets by combining M&S’s brand strength with partners’ logistics and technological capabilities.
The announcement comes after a challenging year for the British retailer, which is still recovering from the impact of a cyber attack in early 2025 that severely disrupted online operations. The breach forced M&S to suspend website orders for six weeks, leading to a more than 40% drop in online home and fashion sales.
M&S’s underlying pre-tax profits for the first half of the financial year fell 55.4% to approximately US $ 232 million, while the estimated total cost of the cyber incident stands at around US $ 172 million, significantly lower than the initially feared US $ 380 million.
Following the restoration of home delivery and click-and-collect services, Chief Executive Stuart Machin stated that the company expects trading to be “fully recovered by the end of the financial year.”
