Athleta, the American direct-to-consumer women’s activewear brand owned by Gap, is partnering with Zalando to help reach new customers in Europe through its extensive digital reach and its personalized customer experience. The partnership will also help Zalando to expand its presence in sports fashion and the sports category in general.
In practice, Athleta is going to get a place in the Zalando Fashion Store and take advange of Zalando Marketing Services (ZMS) to drive awareness to its brand. Using data from Zalando’s 45 million customers in 23 European countries, ZMS will launch targeted campaigns and activations for Athleta.
Zalando will create dedicated landing pages, apps and teasers for Athleta products in the Zalando Fashion Store. It will integrate Athleta’s existing “Power of She” campaign, which features well-known American champions such as Simone Biles and Allyson Felix. Going forward, the campaign will be expanded to the social media and featured in Zalando’s newsletter.
Athleta, which is regarded as a direct competitor of Lululemon in the U.S. through its web shop and its numerous physical stores, is believed to have only a minimal exposure to the European market through e-commerce. It plans to open its first two stores in Canada later this year. Athleta’s sales amounted to $341 million in the second quarter of this year, and Gap recently said that it expects Athleta’s annual sales to reach $2 billion by 2023.
