Zircle is Zalando's free digital application, launched in July 2018, for the sale of pre-owned clothes. Users can digitize their wardrobe to get an overview of everything they own, find and share inspiration, pick tomorrow’s outfit and buy or sell clothes within the app. In both cases users have the option to either offer their items to the community or to Zalando, as well as to purchase from other users or the Zalando Fashion Store. All purchases are imported into the app automatically, so the customer’s wardrobe is updated. Zircle is also a digital community for people who seek inspiration on how to reinvent their wardrobes by styling items in a new way or mixing existing items with pre-owned pieces from other users.

The rapid purchase-to-discard ratio of fast fashion and piling up of clothing in landfills, often made from synthetic materials which do not decompose easily. When consumers throw away clothing in the garbage, not only does it waste money and resources, but it can take 200+ years for the materials to decompose in a landfill. During the decomposition process, textiles generate greenhouse methane gas and leach toxic chemicals and dyes into the groundwater and our soil. There is also the unmet potential of clothing which could be resold, and its lifetime extended- as opposed to manufacturing new clothing which requires more energy and water use, and is associated with more carbon emissions. Finally, there are lack of incentives for people to responsibly pass on/resell their unwanted clothing due to the associated costs- be that time or monetary (e.g. shipping).

Zircle addresses these problems through providing an easy way to redirect unwanted clothing and thus divert it from landfills. It also provides a second-hand marketplace thus encouraging buying second hand and diverting ‘new new’ purchases, thus hopefully slowing down resource depletion

By 2023, Zalando have a target of extending the life of at least 50 million fashion products.

In 2019, according to their website, they estimate that they extended the life of one million items through Zalando Zircle.