Zalando Scales AI Engine, Catches Tackles Fit With Nvidia, John Lewis Eyes Chat Commerce
Zalando posts €12.3bn in sales as AI drives growth across its platform; Catches launches physics-based RealFit with Nvidia and Amiri; John Lewis bets on AI assistants and TikTok Shop.
Zalando Reports €12.3bn Sales as AI Powers Growth Strategy
Zalando has reported a 17% rise in annual sales to €12.3bn in 2025, as the company leans heavily into AI across its data and infrastructure platform. The retailer credits its scale - billions of customer interactions, deep brand relationships, and a pan-European logistics network - as the foundation for AI-driven improvements in both customer experience and operational efficiency. It also announced a €300m share buyback and expects double-digit growth to continue into 2026, alongside accelerated synergy targets following recent expansion moves.
Jade Burke
Why it matters: The real story is leverage: when you combine proprietary data, logistics, and marketplace scale, AI becomes a multiplier on everything from discovery to fulfilment. If this model holds, it creates a widening gap between platform players and everyone else.
Don't miss Pelin Anli Bedirhanoglu, Director of Product Management at Zalando speaking at the Fashion Tech Show in London on March 30th & 31st!
Catches Launches AI Fit Platform With Amiri and Nvidia at GTC
London and New York based startup Catches, has unveiled RealFit, a physics-based AI sizing tool announced alongside Nvidia at its GTC conference on Monday. Built on Nvidia’s CUDA platform, the technology creates a photorealistic digital twin from a shopper’s measurements and a single image, allowing users to see how garments truly fit, drape and move, and toggle between sizes. Catches has raised $10 million from investors including Antoine Arnault and launched RealFit with luxury label Amiri, with further brand integrations planned in the coming months.
Why it matters: Many “AI try-on” tools still rely on visual approximation, good enough for inspiration, not for decision-making. Catches is betting that grounding AI in physics can close that gap, turning try-on into something consumers actually trust when deciding to buy. Given the margin lost due to returns as well as missed sales due to a lack of “fit confidence,” any tech that can truly move the needle will surely command outsized attention (and budget) from brands.
John Lewis Bets on AI Shopping and TikTok Commerce Push
John Lewis is investing heavily in AI-powered shopping, aiming to position its products directly inside platforms like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, where customers increasingly discover what to buy. Through an expanded partnership with commercetools, the retailer plans to make items instantly shoppable within third-party apps, collapsing the journey from inspiration to checkout. Alongside this, it has launched a 90-day TikTok Shop pilot focused on beauty and gifting, while also expanding rapid delivery via Uber Eats to select UK locations.
Why it matters: John Lewis is repositioning itself for a world where discovery happens off-site, inside AI assistants and social feeds. If shopping shifts upstream into these environments, traditional e-commerce sites risk becoming fulfilment layers rather than destinations. The real question for John Lewis, and traditional retailers more broadly, is whether this is simply the cost of staying relevant in an AI-driven landscape, or the beginning of a deeper dependency on platforms they don’t control.
