Online fashion specialist Zalando has unveiled a rise in full-year sales and profits and is preparing to launch a variety of initiatives including a pre-owned range.

Zalando reported that last year its gross merchandise volume rose 23.6% to €8.2bn, revenues increased 20.3% to €6.5bn and adjusted EBIT rose to €224.9m from €173.4m.

Zalando said growth was ”especially pronounced” in the fourth quarter when it achieved ”record-breaking results during Cyber Week”. 

This year, Zalando will introduce new propositions to help it achieve its objective of becoming “the starting point for fashion” including a push to win more luxury spend and, in the autumn, will launch a pre-owned offering.

The retailer said: ”Starting in the third quarter of 2020, customers will be able to buy curated pre-owned fashion, as well as sell their pre-owned fashion items to Zalando.

”The category launch supports Zalando’s ambition to build deep customer relationships by creating even more customer touchpoints, and brings the company closer to the goal to become a sustainable fashion platform.”

In 2019, Zalando took 145 million orders, received more than 4 billion site visits and customer numbers rose to 31 million from 26.4 million the previous year. 

Chief financial officer David Schröder said: “We achieved strong financial results in every single quarter. While delivering those results, we have made strong progress on our strategic agenda.”