BERLIN, March 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Zalando is supercharging its logistics backbone with the roll-out of up to 50 AI-driven Nomagic robots across its European fulfilment network. This expansion also introduces a world-first solution to one of the industry’s toughest hurdles: the automated handling of shoeboxes.
Enhancing the customer & employee experience
The robotic units, affectionately named ‘Richard,’ specialise in item-level picking, scanning, and seamless induction into automated pocket sorters. Using Nomagic’s leading AI and computer vision, these robots recognise materials and shapes to adjust their grip in real-time. By continuously learning and adapting to shifting inventory, the technology proves vital in managing the vast, high-rotation assortment of fashion and lifestyle products within Zalando’s fulfilment centres. By doing so, Zalando ensures that orders are processed with accuracy and fast turnaround.
“The testing phase with Nomagic proved that their robotics are an excellent fit for Zalando’s logistics centres. Following the quick and successful deployment of the first ten units, we have decided to scale our partnership, gradually rolling out more robots as our network evolves,” said Marcus Daute, Vice President Logistics Network at Zalando. “The sheer scale of our operations demands smart automation that works with our people, not alongside them. By delegating simple processes to AI-powered robots, we achieve the operational excellence our customers and business partners expect while supporting employees’ growth.”
Solving the “shoebox challenge”
While automation is common in logistics, shoeboxes have historically been one of the most challenging items to automate in fashion logistics; their loose lids often detach when handled by standard robotic arms.
To overcome this, the Shoebox Picker utilises a specialised software-hardware synergy:
- AI-powered vision: Advanced computer vision is guiding the physical hardware. This allows the robot to “recognise” the specific product type and its orientation in real-time, automatically adjusting its grip type and picking technique to suit each individual item and its orientation.
- Precision grippers: The robots are equipped with custom-engineered grippers that secure the box from two sides, ensuring the lid remains intact during transit.
“Zalando has a great team we collaborate with, both on a project management level and in the warehouses. We highly value our partnership, their trust and especially their openness to implement the latest automation technology like the new Shoebox Picker,” said Kacper Nowicki, CEO and Co-Founder of Nomagic. “By combining the intelligence of AI with a physical system, it solves real-life physical challenges and turns one of the industry’s biggest bottlenecks into a streamlined, automated process. We are looking forward to continuing this journey with Zalando.”
A pan-European roll-out
Following a successful pilot project that achieved a staggering 100,000 picks per day, Zalando is set to significantly scale its partnership with Nomagic. The rollout is already underway and will see up to 50 robotic systems integrated across the network.
The first units are already in use in Germany (Lahr, Moenchengladbach) and Italy (Verona). Additional robots will be deployed across Zalando’s key logistics hubs in the Netherlands (Rotterdam), Sweden (Stockholm), France (Paris) and Zalando’s newest fulfilment centre in Giessen (Germany), which is scheduled for its operational ramp-up later this year.
About Zalando
Founded in Berlin in 2008, Zalando is the leading European technology platform for fashion and lifestyle. Connecting 62 million active customers with more than 7,000 brands across 29 markets, our operations are built on a unique AI-powered data and infrastructure platform. For our customers, our multi-app approach – comprising Zalando, ABOUT YOU, and Lounge by Zalando – delivers an inspiring, highly personalised shopping experience, serving different customers with different needs. For our partners, we are building the operating system for e-commerce. Through ZEOS, Tradebyte, and SCAYLE, we open our logistics, software, and service capabilities to brands and retailers, enabling them to seamlessly scale their businesses across borders.
For further information, please visit: corporate.zalando.com/en
About Nomagic
Nomagic is a leading warehouse robotics company, applying breakthrough general-purpose Physical AI to optimize warehouse operations. The companies deployed robots learn from a massive scale of real operational data, built over millions of tasks in 24/7 environments, that trains an adaptable Physical AI platform handling a variety of warehouse tasks. Nomagic’s next generation VLA (visual language action) models integrate automatically into the fleet of AI powered robots, accelerating autonomy, improving efficiency, while setting the industry standard for the lowest deployment time.
www.nomagic.ai
Q&A
You green-lighted investments in robotics. How does this fit in your strategy?
This investment perfectly aligns with our strategic goals. We are aiming to significantly enhance operational excellence and thus customer experience regarding speed, choice, and reliability of delivery. Therefore, we continue to invest in locations and their automation where it makes economic and strategic sense.
Why are you planning to close sites (Erfurt) while developing others in parallel?
The decision to close sites (or not extend the contracts with some partners respectively) was not made lightly. We determined that an evolution of our network was required to address the foundational needs of a modern logistics operation and to build the future-proof infrastructure we need. We will focus on technologically advanced facilities that are designed to best serve our customers and partners.
Why didn’t you invest in Erfurt, bringing the site to new standards?
We conducted a thorough review of our entire network to align with our long-term customer and cost objectives. This review, which included feasibility studies for upgrading the Erfurt fulfilment centre, showed in particular that we need to rightsize our fulfilment network. The investment required to retrofit Erfurt with the necessary technology is not economically viable and would not help to adjust capacity as needed.
Our long-term strategy is to create a flexible, and technologically advanced logistics network that serves the entire Zalando Group and ultimately ensures a locally competitive customer experience and cost base. Optimising our logistics network helps move us towards our goal of building a single, group-wide fulfilment capability within the next few years. The actions that we are taking now are a necessary step, increasing speed and efficiency and rightsizing our logistics capacity to reflect our mid term growth plans.
Will robots take over employee’s tasks?
To remain competitive, we must invest in new technologies. The goal of these innovations is not to replace employees, but to change the nature of their work by having robots take over repetitive and physically demanding tasks. As a result, roles will evolve to become more technical and complex, with people managing the robots. This is a process we have seen with every generation of warehouse technology.
Contact:
Gilmarie Marley
[email protected]
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