The marketplace opportunity for European fashion brands on ABOUT YOU

Speaker introductions and agenda

00:00:07 Mitchell Dröge: My name is Mitchell from Channel Engine, and I'm here with Clemence from About You for a great webinar about the marketplace opportunity for European brands, specifically on About You, and even more specifically on the new marketplace model, which is a very exciting development.

00:00:30 Mitchell Dröge: This is a live session. It will take approximately 45 minutes. We will be talking through what the opportunity is, how About You's marketplace works, and a lot of other things.

00:02:02 Mitchell Dröge: We're happy to have you here today and talk about the marketplace opportunity for European fashion brands to sell on About You.

00:02:11 Mitchell Dröge: My name is Mitchell, Alliance Manager, Channel Engine, responsible for all sorts of partnerships that we have globally at Channel Engine. And yeah, been involved with About You since we integrated with their platform three years ago. Fun fact, exactly to the date three years ago, we had our first revenue on the About You platform. So it's great to see now three years on how we've seen our clients scale up on About You — back then on the drop shipping model and now, of course, on the marketplace model.

00:02:54 Mitchell Dröge: And with me today on the topic of About You is Clemence Dhuyvetter. Can you please introduce yourself to the audience?

00:03:06 Clemence Dhuyvetter: Sure. Hi, everyone. Very nice to meet you. I mean, I cannot see you, but I'm super excited to be here. Thanks, Mitchell, for the introduction. So my name is Clemence, and I am part of the sales team at About You in the partner business management department. Basically, my job is to take care of the onboarding of merchants on the About You marketplace. So that's why I am here today — to give you some insights into what About You is and also how we can work together and also with Channel Engine.

00:03:41 Mitchell Dröge: For those of you who don't know Channel Engine yet, we are a marketplace integrator. We have over 1,300 different connections globally, been around since 2013, established in the Netherlands. But over the years, we've expanded with a team of 200 marketplace professionals to Germany, US, Canada, Singapore, Dubai. So we're a global integrator that can help you as a fashion brand to sell anywhere in the world.

00:04:19 Mitchell Dröge: Key regions are Europe, North America, but also we have great coverage in the META region, especially in the GCC area — UAE, for example, Southeast Asia, Australia, Latin America. So you can cover big portions of the world with Channel Engine, and we're always expanding.

00:04:50 Mitchell Dröge: What will we be covering? First, we're going to look at why About You is a good fit for you to scale and sell your products in Europe, how to assess fit for the platform, what you need, the different selling models that About You has, what to prepare before you launch, and how to make sure your systems are compatible so you can do it at scale. We will have a Q&A afterwards, so any topics we don't address throughout the session, please feel free to ask in the chat.

Why About You Marketplace

00:07:43 Mitchell Dröge: What about About You Marketplace? Why actually — what's the big draw? Can you introduce About You Marketplace to us, Clemence? And why is it, at this moment, an opportunity that fashion brands definitely shouldn't miss?

00:08:06 Clemence Dhuyvetter: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's a great point to start. Before going into the logistics topic, I thought a quick discussion on why marketplaces first, before talking about About You specifically. Starting with an integration on a marketplace opens the door to massive revenue potential — with one integration you will have access to millions of shoppers, with no cost in acquiring them. Second, you will target new customer segments. As you may be aware, the customers on every marketplace are different. The customer on Zalando, About You, and Bol, for example, are very different. And last but not least, simplified expansion — with one integration, you can have access to more than 26 European countries in About You's case. About You also deals with the annoying topics of tax, reporting, and logistics.

00:09:15 Clemence Dhuyvetter: But now that you are convinced, why About You specifically? About You is one of the fastest growing e-commerce companies in Europe. We were founded about 12 years ago and we keep growing ever since. Latest example is that last year we reached more than 2.5 billion euro GMV, which makes us the second biggest online fashion platform in Europe. We are live in 26 European countries. We are a German platform — from Hamburg — so most of our audience is coming from the DACH region, around 50%. Then comes the Benelux and Central and Eastern Europe, which proves that we really are a European platform.

00:10:36 Clemence Dhuyvetter: We have more than 5,000 brands live at the moment, bringing a total of more than a million articles. But we would be nowhere without our customers. We have more than 50 million active customers — a rather young, feminine, digital-oriented audience with a very high mobile share. This audience may differ from the one on Zalando or Bol, so it's quite a specific audience.

00:11:34 Clemence Dhuyvetter: To answer your question, Mitchell — why About You Marketplace, why now? The marketplace was launched about a year and a half ago, and now it's easier than ever to onboard. Right now, all hands are on deck to boost this platform, onboard merchants, and make it as good as possible. This means you have special care — a dedicated sales manager, integration manager — so you are in good hands, and whenever there's a problem, it's easily solved because we want to make it as easy and as fast as possible for you.

00:12:21 Mitchell Dröge: Thanks. I think it's super clear based on this what the opportunity is. Not only do you cover a large segment of consumers in Europe, especially in DACH, but also emerging in other markets. I know About You is very popular in the Benelux and other markets in Europe. Also, the type of shopper you target is very exciting — Gen Z, the younger shoppers, they're the future. So it's great to see how About You has done really well in targeting those consumers.

Selling models: B2B vs. Marketplace

00:13:00 Mitchell Dröge: What about how it works? Some of you in the audience may know About You more as a retail partner, but the marketplace model has changed things. What can you share about how the different models work at About You?

00:13:25 Clemence Dhuyvetter: Yeah, absolutely. To give you some backstory, Mitchell mentioned that we started working together three years ago, but with a different model that we called B2B. When a customer placed an order on About You, About You would buy from the brand and then sell it to the end customer — so the transaction was between About You and the merchant. But to be honest, it was not the best setup because it did not offer a lot of flexibility to merchants. Integration time was super long — around 8 weeks — and knowing how fast e-commerce moves, 8 weeks is a long time. We also could not accept every seller, there were minimum product count requirements, and sellers had to work with preferred integrators. The barriers were super high.

00:14:54 Clemence Dhuyvetter: Then we realized this was not the way we wanted to grow, which is why we launched the marketplace setup, which offers a lot of flexibility. You're going to hear me say flexibility a lot because I think it's a key word here. Our marketplace setup is quite comparable to other industry players — it's a D2C setup, meaning the transaction is between you, the merchant, and the end customer. This means price sovereignty is on your side. You can set the prices you want for your articles. That is the most important shift.

00:15:47 Clemence Dhuyvetter: We still offer two ways to fulfill orders: Fulfilled by About You, where we take care of fulfillment, and Fulfilled by Merchant, where you are in charge of fulfilling the orders. You can also see a Zeos logo on my slide — Zeos is enabled on the About You marketplace. So if you are already working with Zeos, you are more than welcome to work with us.

Fulfilled by Merchant

00:16:21 Clemence Dhuyvetter: Starting with Fulfilled by Merchant — as the name suggests, you leverage your existing logistics networks to fulfill About You customer orders. At the moment, all the countries in purple are available — mostly Western Europe, a bit in the Nordics — and we are slowly extending towards Central and Eastern Europe, which is a very important market for us. Merchants are 100% free to decide on the countries they want to go live in. So if only Finland interests you, fine. If you want to onboard all countries, also absolutely fine. Zeos is enabled here as well.

00:17:52 Clemence Dhuyvetter: On the not-so-fun side: you need to abide by our SLAs in terms of shipment times, last-mile carriers, and return policy. You also need to use the OSS system for the reporting of goods.

Fulfilled by About You

00:18:17 Clemence Dhuyvetter: For Fulfilled by About You, your only job is to select the goods you want to sell, deliver them to our warehouses, and then we handle everything. We operate in a multi-warehouse setup — we have 3 warehouses: one in Germany, one in Poland, and one in Slovakia, as well as a regional facility in Czech Republic. You need to get VAT registrations in all the countries where we have warehouses — German, Polish, Slovak, and Czech VAT numbers — and then you will be able to target the whole country scope.

Eligibility and onboarding requirements

00:19:18 Clemence Dhuyvetter: Now, who can onboard — who do we accept on the About You marketplace? My answer is almost everyone. We have decided to lower the entry barriers so much that they are close to none. The last one standing is that you need to have a legal entity in the European Union. That is the only requirement. In terms of assortment, almost everything is welcome. There is no minimum product count — you onboard the products you wish, as long as they belong to categories we already sell: women's wear, menswear, shoes, bags. Cosmetics and food are unfortunately not possible at the moment. No minimum product count, and no listing fees.

00:20:45 Clemence Dhuyvetter: In terms of how to connect, we offer different ways depending on your IT capabilities and the collaborations you might have with service providers — Shopify integration, API, and also a connection with Channel Engine, which is ready.

00:21:14 Mitchell Dröge: Thank you. It's great to see that the barriers to entry have been lowered so much. Is it possible to ship from outside the EU, or do you need to ship from within an EU country?

00:21:36 Clemence Dhuyvetter: No, you need to ship from an EU country because of the tax and customs requirements. If you have a legal entity, generally you also have your warehouse there, but yes — you need to ship from the EU.

00:21:52 Mitchell Dröge: Yeah, exactly. And if you're shipping from the EU, you need to have the VAT number for the country you're shipping from — that's not a per-se About You requirement, that's a general EU requirement. So Indian companies are more than welcome, but you need to have the EU entity and stock in the EU.

00:22:27 Mitchell Dröge: Question from the chat: Can I sell any brand on About You or are there restrictions?

00:22:31 Clemence Dhuyvetter: That's a very good question. For the assortment, you bring whatever you want — as long as you have the right to sell the brand. If you are a reseller, as long as you have the right to resell, that's absolutely fine for us.

00:22:55 Mitchell Dröge: Of course, within the categories that are actually covered in About You.

00:22:59 Clemence Dhuyvetter: Absolutely, but we have quite a few categories, so I think you can find something here for you.

Onboarding journey and go-live timeline

00:23:06 Mitchell Dröge: Next steps, getting live and expanding across markets. If a brand decides today they want to launch on About You, what does the journey from first conversation to go-live look like?

00:23:28 Clemence Dhuyvetter: The real partner journey starts with the business integration phase, where you have direct contact with a sales manager — in this case, that would be me. We go through all the requirements and then sign the About You contract. Then it's integration time, which consists of two parts. The first is the KYC check. KYC stands for Know Your Customer — it's a legal requirement from the European Union that we need to verify you are conducting legal business activities. It involves verifying your identity and providing documents about your company. Then comes the technical integration, done with a dedicated integration manager from our side, and with the support of Channel Engine to make sure everything goes smoothly and all product data is correct.

00:25:20 Clemence Dhuyvetter: With the former model, go-live time was around 8 weeks. Now we are looking at 3 to 4 weeks, thanks to simplified processes, our great collaboration with Channel Engine, and the dedicated attention we give to merchants.

00:25:35 Mitchell Dröge: That's a massive improvement, Clemence. What trips brands up most often during onboarding? What should they have ready before they even start?

00:25:52 Clemence Dhuyvetter: The process starts in our Seller Center — the platform we developed alongside this marketplace. You fill out a questionnaire covering contact details, information about your company, your legal entity and tax number, your logistics operation and fulfillment setup, the carriers you work with, and the brands you want to onboard. Some brands will already be on the list — you simply select them. You also have the possibility to create your own brand if you're a smaller seller and your brand doesn't yet exist in our system. There's no limit on how many brands you can onboard.

00:27:23 Clemence Dhuyvetter: For KYC, documents need to be less than three months old, so requesting them as soon as possible is valuable. And for the technical integration side, you need valid EANs, images in a specific format, and intrastat data.

How Channel Engine simplifies marketplace operations

00:28:15 Mitchell Dröge: Yeah, thank you. We have a little bit of experience with this indeed. So we simplify your operations. I'll share a bit about Channel Engine in terms of what we do and what the integration with About You Marketplace entails.

00:28:42 Mitchell Dröge: There are three key benefits of using an integrator, especially Channel Engine. The first is operational optimization. As a brand or retailer, you have various systems where you store your product information, pricing, and stock levels. Whenever you connect with a marketplace, orders need to flow into some kind of system. Typically our clients have a minimum of two or three different sources. You can connect those to Channel Engine to make sure they work together well and create a single source of truth.

00:29:38 Mitchell Dröge: The second is efficient scalability. Our clients sell on average across at least seven different channels. Multi-channel selling can be very unscalable because the different requirements vary — you've seen the requirements for About You, but maybe for another marketplace like Zalando they are slightly different. We simplify this so it becomes scalable. We know exactly what the requirements are on each marketplace side, and in our solution you can manage all your products and make sure the data is suitable for those different channels. We also reel in all those different orders, know exactly what your stock levels are, and prevent things like overselling through cancellations when you're out of stock.

00:30:36 Mitchell Dröge: Adaptability and agility is the third crucial one. E-commerce moves fast, so it's very important to be able to adapt and be agile — new channels popping up, channel opportunities like About You Marketplace, country expansion opportunities, or changes in fulfillment. Maybe you want to use your own fulfillment, Zeos, or a marketplace fulfillment solution like FBA. You need to be able to switch between those things easily to meet the needs of your consumers.

00:31:35 Mitchell Dröge: Why Channel Engine specifically? We live and breathe marketplaces. We have done so since our inception. Everything we do is from the point of view of trying to get you to grow on marketplaces, but in a profitable way. We have an unrivaled international network of marketplaces, so international expansion is super easy with Channel Engine. We invest a lot in platform innovation and reliability — highest standards in security and ISO standards — and we've brought a lot of great AI functionality into our tool, like AI categorization, AI mapping, creating bundles, and a dynamic repricer that allows you to automatically reprice your products on platforms.

00:32:52 Mitchell Dröge: From a data point of view, for every channel you sell on — including About You Marketplace — you get great data insights in terms of how you're doing, including sales velocity and stock replenishment needs. And our guidance and support layer helps you with both technical and commercial challenges.

00:33:21 Mitchell Dröge: On the left side are the systems you're using for your stock levels, content, etc. Channel Engine bridges those to the different marketplaces you can sell on — with About You at the top. Product data, offers like stock and price, shipments, returns, and cancellations flow from your systems through Channel Engine to the marketplaces. And things like required categories and attributes, orders, shipping labels, and returns come back from the marketplace into your systems. This is fully automated and really reduces the need for Excel sheets and large teams managing this manually.

Channel Engine and About You: integration specifics

00:34:18 Mitchell Dröge: Specifically for About You, we have a full range of endpoints and flows that we support — anything you need to scale there. You'll be able to push your offers and content, retrieve orders, and manage product variations. About You is a fashion marketplace, so variations are crucial — our system can easily set those up based on the data you have. You'll need a grandparent, parent, child type of structure in your data, which you can then map in Channel Engine. Marketplace fulfillment service — FBA — is also supported.

00:35:12 Mitchell Dröge: Compared to the old drop shipment model, the About You marketplace integration offers a lot of wins. We see an improved feedback loop for creating articles, a much smoother taxonomy and mapping process, and simplified FBA setup. We've also built a hybrid setup between FBA and your own fulfillment. If you're using FBA but maybe not for all products — or if stock runs out on the About You fulfillment side — your offer won't go offline because you may still have stock in your own warehouse. Having that switch available in our system is very useful, especially if you want to keep some stock in your own warehouse for fulfillment to your own webshop as well.

00:36:39 Mitchell Dröge: And as Clemence already mentioned, we support Zeos and multi-channel fulfillment.

Key takeaways and next steps

00:36:44 Mitchell Dröge: I think we've looked into a lot of things today. Here are quickly the key takeaways and next steps. Most importantly, About You is now more accessible for you as a fashion brand — lower entry barriers and much faster onboarding. What else, Clemence?

00:37:11 Clemence Dhuyvetter: You can decide on the assortment you want to onboard, you have price sovereignty, and you have flexibility in fulfillment setup — Fulfilled by Merchant, Fulfilled by About You, or a combination of both.

00:37:34 Mitchell Dröge: Preparation is key. Even with lower entry barriers, you still need to do your due diligence — having your product data ready, legal documents available, and your operations set up before you launch on About You.

00:37:51 Clemence Dhuyvetter: And last but not least — a central setup makes expansion easier. You can steer your entire business using the Channel Engine interface — whether it's the About You marketplace or all marketplaces at once, with one setup.

Q&A

00:39:08 Mitchell Dröge: Question from the chat: Does a brand need About You's approval to sell on the platform, or can any brand sell as long as it meets all the requirements?

00:39:08 Clemence Dhuyvetter: No — you can select as many brands as you want to onboard and we will not ask you for proof that you are authorized to sell those brands. We trust you — it is your responsibility. You can sell any brands as long as all requirements are met. A double-check is also made to ensure products are compliant with safety laws, trademarks, and that only real, legitimate products are listed. But basically you are free to onboard whatever you want.

00:40:03 Mitchell Dröge: Question from the chat: Does About You have any verified partners that manage About You for companies?

00:40:11 Mitchell Dröge: From the Channel Engine side, yes — we work with many different agencies and enablers that can manage your accounts on About You. A couple of examples are Bransom or 10X Crew from the Netherlands, but also many German partners. You can check our website for a full list.

00:40:43 Clemence Dhuyvetter: We also work with quite a lot of agencies and middleware service providers. We work with all the biggest agencies and middleware, so the likelihood of an existing connection with us is quite high.

00:41:10 Mitchell Dröge: I'll put a link to our partner section in the chat — the agency partner section on the Channel Engine website. Those agencies are also trained in how to set up listings on About You through Channel Engine, so they'll know exactly what to do.

00:41:37 Mitchell Dröge: Question from the chat: Does About You use a buy box system when multiple sellers offer the same item, and if so, how does that work?

00:41:48 Clemence Dhuyvetter: That is a very good question, and it's quite an important topic. We do have a buy box system. The merchant that will always have the buy box first is About You wholesale — because we carry the stock and the risk, so we want to move that as quickly as possible. Then, if a product is sold by multiple retailers and the brand itself is also onboarded — let's take Adidas as an example — Adidas as a merchant will come next, after the wholesale assortment, because they own and manufacture the goods. And finally, if wholesale stock runs out and Adidas stock is also empty, third-party retailers will be able to supply and sell those products.

00:43:05 Clemence Dhuyvetter: I know how this sounds — if you're a retailer, it might seem like you're at the bottom and will never get sales. But this is actually not true. Retailers perform quite well on About You, especially when they offer a different or unique assortment. So there is still strong potential for you.

00:43:30 Mitchell Dröge: Absolutely. If you bring a great new brand to About You through the marketplace, that's an extra interesting opportunity, because you have no competition from wholesale or other sellers.

00:43:55 Clemence Dhuyvetter: Exactly. If you're a Dutch merchant and you bring a very specific Dutch brand that no one else has on About You, you will have the buy box and all the sales from it. So the ranking system would not impact you at all in that case.

00:44:14 Mitchell Dröge: Well, I think that brings us up to time. Thank you everyone for some great questions. We will send over the recording to everyone on today's call. And Clemence, thanks for talking us through everything — it's been a pleasure having you.

00:44:46 Clemence Dhuyvetter: Thanks for having me. I was super happy to be here.