Quiz axes Zalando partnership as return rates soar

The fashion retailer, which reported a 97% slump in full-year pre-tax profits to £0.2m today, ended its partnership with Zalando at the beginning of its current financial year.

Quiz chief executive Tarak Ramzan said it cut ties with Zalando after recording returns rates on items bought from the online retail platform “north of 70%” in the second half of its most recent financial year.

“Online returns are a big issue for the whole industry, the rate of returns has been rising and the whole industry talks about how to handle it because it has been costly,” said Ramzan.

“Returns on our own website have not increased dramatically, it is more on some of our third-party websites [they have] have gone up.”

Ramzan said Quiz remained committed to its wholesale partnerships with Next and Debenhams and selling via third-party websites was an area of the business he intended to expand.

However, he stressed that the fashion retailer, which was also previously partnered with House of Fraser, would be “more careful about who [it] worked with” going forward.

The retailer recorded a 12% rise in group revenue during the year, but gross margin fell to 60.7% from 63% the previous year as the business increased discounting levels to shift excess stock.

Ramzan said Quiz would focus on expanding rapidly growing lines such as its petite range in its current financial year to improve its margins.