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Case 06 / Fashion ecommerce

An AI pilot their planners actually used

Board of Innovation brought Zalando a focused hypothesis: give one internal team a real AI workflow against live data, fast. The pipeline now runs itself every Monday, planners just review and approve, and after the first wave of feedback we shipped a second round before handing the whole build to Zalando's own team.

DLVX / CASE NO. 06 Pilot, wave 2 shipped
01 AI workflow Six steps, same order every week: ingest, embed categories, detect coverage gaps, rank recommendations by confidence and margin impact, then queue for review.
02 Backend A small service layer wired to the pilot's own data feeds, sales, search and returns, sandboxed from the consumer shop and every production system.
03 SSO auth Sign-in tied straight into Zalando's corporate identity provider, SAML 2.0. Role and business-unit scope applied automatically, no separate account system to maintain.
04 Iteration 2 + handover Wave 1 feedback folded back into the model and the review queue. After wave 2 landed with sponsors, we documented the build and handed it to Zalando's own team.
05 Pilot frontend A clean dashboard, workflow builder and findings view is part of the package, the surface the Womenswear Premium DACH team opened daily. Built for one working group, not a company-wide launch.
The loop
  • Feeds land before the gap model runs, every Monday
  • Same six-step pipeline, same order, wave after wave
The gate No recommendation moves without a planner's yes
Scope, on purpose
  • SSO covers this pilot only, one team, one business unit
  • Consumer shop untouched, dashed wire, kept well away
not this build SSO gate Consumer shop Data feeds Sales, search, returns Gap detection Ranked recs AI workflow Human review gate Planners decide Decisions Findings Sponsors Wave 2 review
id.zalando.net
Zalando ID sign-in screen for the assortment pilot
assort-pilot.int.zalando.net
Assortment Intelligence pilot dashboard, gap coverage and open recommendations
assort-pilot.int.zalando.net/workflows
Weekly workflow builder showing the six pipeline steps and the human review queue
assort-pilot.int.zalando.net/findings
Wave 2 pilot findings shared with sponsors, planner acceptance and coverage lift

Real screens from the pilot: the sign-in gate, the dashboard planners opened each morning, the workflow behind it, and the wave 2 findings sent to sponsors.

Didn't think our planners would actually keep opening this after the pilot ended, but they did. The review gate mattered more than the model, honestly, nobody wanted software deciding stock on its own. Wave 2 turned around fast too.

Jonas

Pilot lead, internal team

From the wrap-up thread, wave 2

60% Planner acceptance, wave 2
Weeks To first working pilot
1 team Tight scope, one business unit
2 Iterations, then handover

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