Duty of care: How we handle the remaining stock
What about returned garments and shoes that could not be refurbished because minor defects could not be fixed – for example a stain on the sole of a sneaker that cannot be removed? Such articles, as well as merchandise from the previous season and items that are only available in a few sizes, we can offer throughout Germany in our Zalando Outlets. Items from previous seasons are also frequently offered on “Lounge by Zalando”. In addition, we take the opportunity to donate remaining stock to organizations such as humedica or sell it to wholesale partners. In order to fully comply with our duty of care, we only work with selected aid organizations and wholesale partners whose headquarters are located within the EU and who are therefore also bound by applicable laws.
This way we can ensure that no goods have to be destroyed if they can still be used in their original form. Only in exceptional cases are we required to destroy articles. For example, this might be necessary for health or legal reasons (e.g. in the case of product recalls when limit values are exceeded, pollution, pest infestation) or if products are broken and cannot be resold.
*Within our network, there are 1) sites that focus exclusively on the inspection and sorting of returns, 2) sites that focus only on refurbishment, and 3) sites where both process steps are performed. In addition, some of our 12 customer-facing logistics centers handle a low volume of returns for capacity reasons. For simplicity, we call them here return centers.
