How Cotton On increased their marketplace product range by 300%

Cotton On results

• 300% increase in product range for Zalora, Asia’s leading online fashion retailer, compared to previous direct integration  
• Freed internal teams to focus on trading instead of managing complex integrations  
• Ongoing managed services support acts as an “extension of our team” 

How Cotton On increased their marketplace product range by 300% 

For Australian fashion and lifestyle retailer Cotton On, expanding into new marketplaces used to be cumbersome. “In the early days, integrating with a partner directly involved working with large cross‑functional teams and daily stand‑ups,” said IT Manager Paul Gellion. “It was costly, time consuming and fairly complex.”  

They needed a solution that could automate category mapping, scale integrations, and work in sync with their growing needs.  

The shift to Rithum

Cotton On chose Rithum to enable their marketplace growth strategy. “The purpose was to enable a one‑to‑many integration from our merchandising and order management systems to global marketplaces,” said Paul. 

Instead of building custom integrations for each new marketplace, Cotton On connects once to Rithum, then activates new channels with far less effort. “Now we work directly with Rithum. It’s an implementation, not a completely new integration and rebuild,” said Paul.  

The difference in speed is dramatic. “We can launch a new marketplace every couple of months, compared to one every six months before,” Paul said. The ability to “dip our toes in, see if it works, and step back out again” allows Cotton On to take more calculated bets on new selling opportunities. 

300% more range for Zalora

Cotton On is about to launch Zalora through Rithum, replacing its old direct integration. The team expects a 300% increase in product range thanks to smoother category mapping and attribute alignment.  

“With our direct integration, we were limited in what we could fix. We’re excited to see the difference working with a partner we’ve integrated with both directly and through Rithum will make.”  

– Lily Hannett, Marketplace Operations Manager, Cotton On 

Partnership in action

While the one‑to‑many integration goal was why they initially chose Rithum, Cotton On also values Rithum’s Managed Services model.  

“Rithum’s Managed Services team across all our partners is absolutely gold.” 

– Paul Gellion, IT Manager, Cotton On 

Rithum’s Technical Account Manager Zoe Darville handles much of the behind‑the‑scenes work for Cotton On, including category mapping, business rules, and error resolution. “Effectively, we’re partnering with Rithum like an extension of our team,” Paul said.

This support gives Cotton On increased visibility without any additional burden. The team uses Rithum’s template view to immediately see why a product isn’t sending to the marketplace and can check business rules to fix the issue. Reports on demand metrics are run and scheduled in‑house. 

Looking ahead together

Working with Rithum, Cotton On plans to move first on new channels and AI solutions, provide real‑world feedback that informs the roadmap, and model a clear path other brands can follow. 

“With the rise of AI, we want to be at the cutting edge and co‑develop solutions with Rithum.” 

– Paul Gellion 

About Cotton On

The Cotton On Group is a global fashion and lifestyle retailer with eight brands—Cotton On, Cotton On Body, Cotton On Kids, Rubi, Typo, Factorie, Supré and Ceres Life—across 20 countries and 1,300 stores. Their driving purpose lies in the Cotton On Foundation. Powered by 20,000 team members, the Foundation works with customers to make a positive impact on education, mental health, and environmental projects around the globe.