Zalora lost 70 million Euros in 2012, projects profitability in 2015

Self-billed “Asia’s biggest online fashion store”, Zalora had a net negative income of almost EUR 70M (USD 91M) in 2012. In an apparently confidential Income Statement 2012-2017 for investors, we now know that Zalora Southeast Asia made EUR 48M (USD 62.5M) in revenues (after returns and cancellations) in 2012 (thus we are enlightened on their “annualized double-digit million USD revenues” that is in their “About ZALORA” in press releases pretty much everywhere, SGE’s previous estimate of USD 75M wasn’t too off), projects profitability from somewhere in 2015, and aims to reach total revenues of EUR 1 billion (USD 1.3B) sometime in 2016.

These numbers are based on 8 (current) markets (no word of potential future markets), mostly desktop shopping for the last year since Zalora launched in early 2012, with mobile commerce to increase with launches of native mobile apps (iOS last week, Android later in the future) and the rising trend of mobile usage in Asia (see below).

German magazine Manager Magazin published the document online and parts of the Zalora Income Statement for 2012-2017 can be seen here:

The fashion e-commerce outfit by Rocket Internet spans 8 markets in Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong), recently got a fresh injection of funds of EUR 20M (USD 26M) from German retail company Tengelmann (after JP Morgan’s “significant double digit millions” of investment in September 2012, other investors include Summit Partners and Kinnevik), set up a regional software development center in Singapore, and just launched an iOS app.

As of 3 days ago, Zalora tells us that one day after the official launch of their iOS app last week, it has gotten:

– Top overall app (Free) for the Singapore and Vietnam app stores
– Top 3 overall app (Free) for the Malaysia and Philippines app stores
– Top 10 overall app for the Indonesia app store
– Top #1 lifestyle app for all Zalora countries.

iOS first makes sense for a company like Zalora even though Android trumps over iOS usage across APAC. iOS users typically are more willing to spend and spend more and the median price of Zalora’s items are more than that of mobile apps.

According to a new 7011-respondent, 14-market Mastercard survey held over November and December 2012, mobile commerce is on the rise in some countries in Asia, with a few dips, and a few holding strong: