Zalando, Europe’s Largest Online Retailer*, Runs Its AI Infrastructure on European Technology (Hopsworks)

Why It Matters

By adopting a home‑grown European AI platform, Zalando reduces reliance on US providers and sets a precedent for secure, low‑latency personalization at scale across the continent.

Key Takeaways

• Zalando powers AI with Hopsstore's European‑owned lakehouse platform.
• Platform handles millions of operations per second during Cyber‑week spikes.
• Over 62 million active users benefit from real‑time personalization.
• Hopsworks positions Europe against US AI data‑platform leaders.
• Zero‑downtime, high‑security infrastructure meets strict governance requirements.

Pulse Analysis

Personalization has become the cornerstone of modern e‑commerce, where shoppers expect instant, relevant recommendations. Zalando, with more than 62 million active users across Europe, faces the same pressure as global players like Amazon and TikTok to deliver AI‑driven experiences without perceptible lag. During peak periods such as Cyber‑week, the retailer processes millions of queries per second, demanding an infrastructure that can sustain high throughput while guaranteeing zero downtime. The choice of underlying data platform therefore directly influences conversion rates and brand loyalty.

Hopsworks, Europe’s sole lakehouse and AI company, supplies the technology powering Zalando’s AI stack. Built on an open‑source foundation, the platform merges the scalability of a data lake with the transactional guarantees of a warehouse, enabling real‑time feature serving at “human latency” levels. Its architecture supports strict security and governance controls, a critical requirement for a retailer handling sensitive customer data under GDPR. By delivering millions of operations per second, Hopsworks rivals US‑based solutions from Snowflake and Databricks while remaining fully European‑owned.

The partnership signals a broader shift toward home‑grown AI infrastructure in Europe, reducing dependence on American cloud providers and fostering local expertise. For other retailers, Hopsworks offers a blueprint for scaling personalization without sacrificing compliance or performance. As European AI platforms mature, they are likely to attract more enterprise workloads, spurring investment in talent and innovation. Zalando’s move not only enhances its own competitive edge but also validates the viability of European‑centric data‑engineered AI solutions on the global stage.