Zalando’s Use of AI and Digital Twins Enhances Speed and Flexibility in Fashion Content Creation

Zalando’s Use of AI and Digital Twins Enhances Speed and Flexibility in Fashion Content Creation

(IN BRIEF) Zalando is enhancing its content creation with AI and digital twin technology, ensuring fast, flexible, and high-quality visuals for a seamless shopping experience. By blending digital innovation with human creativity, Zalando is setting a new standard for the future of fashion content.

(PRESS RELEASE) BERLIN, 7-May-2025 — /EuropaWire/ — Zalando is redefining the shopping experience by leveraging AI to bring more flexibility, speed, and accuracy to content production, while maintaining the essential human touch. As fashion evolves and customer expectations rise, particularly among Gen Z, Zalando’s strategy revolves around delivering a seamless, personalized, and visually-rich experience. By scaling AI-assisted content tools across workflows, Zalando is adapting to fast-paced trends and ensuring high-quality, timely content that resonates with customers.

A Dynamic Approach to Fashion Content Creation

The fast-paced nature of fashion, with trends emerging rapidly, demands content production that can keep up. Traditional methods, often unable to react quickly to new microtrends, are being replaced with AI-powered tools. In Q4 2024, AI-driven content production accounted for approximately 70% of Zalando’s editorial campaign assets. As Matthias Haase, VP Content Solutions at Zalando, explains, AI allows them to produce tailored content in under 24 hours, providing the flexibility to match the pace of culture while keeping teams creative and empowered.

Blending the Physical with Digital Innovation

Zalando is taking its content creation a step further by piloting digital twins — realistic 3D replicas of real models, created in collaboration with ORENDT STUDIOS. These digital twins mirror the appearance, shape, and movement of the models, allowing Zalando to produce high-quality visuals more efficiently. Digital models, paired with photoshoots, ensure precision in every garment’s representation, maintaining the same texture, silhouette, and details found in traditional product photography.

Torsten Orendt, CEO of ORENDT STUDIOS, states, “The digital twin delivers the same high-quality content at scale, seamlessly across multiple channels, paving the way for full AI digitalisation with a focus on legal compliance and ethical responsibility.”

Creativity and Technology, Hand in Hand

Digital twins offer more flexibility for Zalando’s content team, creating a connected and consistent customer experience. From inspirational campaigns to detailed product pages, the human touch remains central to the process. Every AI-supported piece of content undergoes a thorough review to maintain quality and transparency. Paris-based model Marylou Moll shares, “Using cutting-edge technology based on ethical standards, I can expand my scope of work and participate in multiple photoshoots at once while maintaining high quality.”

Unlocking New Career Opportunities for Models

In addition to advancing Zalando’s content capabilities, digital twins also offer career growth opportunities for models. Armin Geiger, CEO of RAIN MANAGEMENT SL, notes, “Digital twins provide models with a chance to showcase their talents globally, with fewer geographical and time constraints, while gaining access to additional and fair income streams.”

Looking Ahead

While digital twins are still in the pilot phase, they represent a broader shift in fashion content creation. Technology supports creativity, making content production both fast and thoughtful, while always keeping real people at the center of the experience. Zalando’s commitment to quality, inspiration, and innovation remains unwavering, no matter the tools or formats used.

About Zalando

Founded in Berlin in 2008, Zalando is Europe’s leading online multi-brand fashion destination. We are building a pan-European ecosystem for fashion and lifestyle e-commerce, along two growth vectors: Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and Business-to-Business (B2B). In B2C, we provide an inspiring, high-quality multi-brand shopping experience for fashion and lifestyle products to more than 52 million active customers across 25 markets. In B2B, we leverage our logistics infrastructure, software, and service capabilities to support brands and retailers in managing and scaling their entire e-commerce business, both on and off the Zalando platform. Through our ecosystem vision, Zalando aims to enable positive change in the fashion and lifestyle industry.

Media Contact:

Corporate Communications
press@zalando.com

SOURCE: Zalando