Acting more like a marketplace, Zalando plans to introduce same-day delivery by sending orders directly from a retailer's store, instead of a warehouse, to the customer's home. Europe's largest online fashion retailer believes that this would shorten delivery times, increase stock availability and cut logistics costs in the long term. Zalando is testing the concept in Berlin by delivering items ordered online from a streetwear clothing and footwear store, Bodycheck in the city's Alexa shopping mall to customers on the same day. This is one of several new initiatives Zalando is exploring in a bid to increase its market share in the European fashion market from one percent to five percent. As we have already mentioned in Shoe Intelligence, the Berlin-based company will invest €200 million in new technology initiatives in 2016. One of these is a pilot project in Amsterdam where customers can initiate product returns from their mobile phones. Zalando is also looking into facilitating customer purchases by incorporating a “buy” button on social media applications as well as enabling mobile payment compatibility such as with Apple Pay. At the same time, Zalando is reportedly looking into a deal with Uber, a popular cab-hailing service, to better manage deliveries and returns.

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