OTTO's Annual Report: Slight Revenue Dip but Profits Double, Plans ?350 Million Investment in AI

By Ebrun, June 6th. Recently, the OTTO Group released its latest annual financial report for the 2025/26 fiscal year. The data shows that its overall revenue reached ?13.8 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 7.4%. However, corporate earnings achieved double-digit growth, with EBIT increasing from ?276 million to ?641 million, and post-tax profit reaching ?312 million. Concurrently, its global number of active customers further rose to 42 million. The Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) of the main OTTO platform grew by 6%, reaching approximately ?7.5 billion. Consequently, OTTO's overall growth rate in its home market of Germany significantly surpassed that of its competitors, and it once again gained market share: its number of active customers in Germany increased by 4%, reaching 12.6 million. The variety of products for sale has expanded to over 19 million items. In line with the platform's internationalization strategy, further category expansion has been planned. Starting from 2026, merchants from the Netherlands, Poland, Austria, France, and Spain will also be able to sell their products on the OTTO platform. Facing the persistently sluggish consumer environment, Group CEO Petra Scharner-Wolff still evaluated it as a 'generally successful fiscal year,' noting that this profit level is also the 'best result' achieved in the post-pandemic era. Petra Scharner-Wolff emphasized, 'We calmly achieved our goals and further strengthened the Group's economic foundation. Our clear priority remains management focused on profitability; at the same time, we are investing very purposefully in growth and innovation.' She stated that the profit growth was primarily driven by the development of the Otto.de platform business, the performance contribution of the highly profitable financial services company EOS, and ongoing cost-reduction measures. In contrast, regarding the turnover decline, foreign media analysis suggests the main reason was the sale of the Group's subsidiary About You to competitor Zalando, a transaction completed in July 2025. Additionally, affected by declining consumer willingness and intensified market competition, the performance of OTTO's clothing brand Bonprix was also relatively weak. On another front, the OTTO Group is also streamlining its workforce to reduce costs and improve efficiency. The annual report shows that as of the end of the fiscal year, the Group had approximately 34,800 employees, a reduction of about 1,500 compared to the previous fiscal year. During the period of rapid business growth in the 2021/22 fiscal year amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the Group had about 43,200 employees. According to the plan, by the end of the 2027/28 fiscal year, the Group's core platform business will cut up to 460 full-time positions; during the same period, the Group's logistics company Hermes will reduce up to 850 positions, with about half of the affected employees receiving opportunities for internal transfers. Furthermore, the Group will cut 229 positions at the fashion company Witt, with the relevant employees leaving the company through partial retirement, early retirement, or severance packages. Additionally, in its official announcement, the company also declared that it will make technology and artificial intelligence key means to enhance its future competitiveness. For example, OTTO itself has developed a new AI assistant based on Google's Gemini technology, which can provide customers with product search support within the application. This assistant can process natural language input via text or voice (voice chat), understand customer needs in context, and provide matching product suggestions. Furthermore, OTTO offers customers a self-developed AI assistant for handling service-related matters. In the coming fiscal years, the Otto Group plans to invest approximately ?350 million in the technology and artificial intelligence fields.

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