DS Smith and Zalando have joined forces to bring sustainable packaging to the fashion industry, subverting labels of ‘fast fashion’ and wastefulness.
DS Smith is a pioneer in sustainable packaging, deeply embedded in the value chain for vital sectors such as e-commerce, FMCG, food and beverage and industrials.
The British company holds a position on the FTSE 100 index, meaning its work creates ripples around the world.
Its robust partnership with Zalando, a top-tier multi-brand fashion and lifestyle retailer, sees the company make a firm foothold in the fashion sector, which is often criticised for its wastefulness.
The collaboration, set to extend from April 2025, encompasses Zalando’s e-commerce and employs DS Smith’s fibre-based corrugated cardboard packaging solutions across various European nations. It marks the continuation of a fruitful long-term association.
Under this renewed contract, both DS Smith and Zalando will persist in their drive to develop and apply innovative, bespoke, sustainable packaging for Zalando’s customer order and delivery hubs.
The markets span Europe, including countries like Germany, Poland, France, Hungary, Sweden, Italy, the UK, Spain, Estonia and Switzerland.
Championing sustainable innovation
DS Smith’s collaboration with Zalando is set to catalyse high-end innovation in packaging design and material use.
DS Smith’s design teams are celebrated for their unique circular design principles—they strive to use no more materials than necessary, and they prioritise recycled materials whenever feasible.
The central ethos here is the promotion of a circular economy. This approach aims at slashing consumption, waste, and pollution by extending the lifecycle of products and embedding sustainability into the heart of strategic planning.
DS Smith’s endeavour with Zalando is expected to set new benchmarks for the entire e-commerce industry.
“This new agreement will enable us to build on our research and development to date and continue creating some outstanding packaging solutions for Zalando’s e-commerce product portfolio across Europe,” says Marc Chiron, Sales, Marketing, and Innovation Director for the Packaging Division at DS Smith.
“We’re committed to ensuring our packaging offering is best-in-class and, as a company, we are pioneering in our outlook and shared vision of Redefining Packaging for a Changing World. This is a tremendously exciting opportunity to take our knowledge of Zalando products, production, and supply chain processes to the next level,” he continues.
Inside Zalando’s ecosystem expansion
So, what does Zalando’s future look like? The company is intensifying efforts to establish the foremost pan-European ecosystem for fashion and lifestyle e-commerce through dual growth vectors: business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B).
In B2C, Zalando is intent on creating an intuitive, streamlined multi-brand shopping experience for roughly 50 million active customers across 25 markets.
Through its B2B services, Zalando leverages its logistical infrastructure, software, and service capabilities to assist brands and retailers in either initiating or scaling their entire e-commerce operations, whether directly within or outside Zalando’s platform.
Reflecting on the partnership with DS Smith, David Fischer, Director of Logistics Sustainability and Packaging at Zalando, says: “DS Smith has proven to be a highly-valued, inspiring, and dependable partner for Zalando and we’ve worked incredibly well together in recent years.
“Our focus is on innovation and leading the way with customer-centric, more sustainable solutions. We have a strong interest in developing high-quality packaging solutions for e-commerce and, as a leading player, our customers expect us to lead the way into a more sustainable future. We are very keen to set new standards for e-commerce and for Zalando in general.”
