By Operator One Editorial — 2 September 2026
Key takeaways
- zooplus Marketplace is live in exactly two countries, Germany and France, as confirmed in zooplus SE's press release of 5 August 2026; there is no UK, Dutch, Italian, Spanish or Polish marketplace and none has been announced.
- There is no self-serve registration on zooplus Marketplace: each country page routes applicants into a separate Pipedrive webform, followed by an internal review, a video call and only then a Mirakl storefront link.
- zooplus publishes no commission percentage and no rate card anywhere; commission is set per partner during onboarding and is charged on selling price plus shipping cost, excluding VAT.
- zooplus offers no fulfilment or warehousing to marketplace partners: 100% of marketplace orders are seller-fulfilled, with a 2 business day shipping lead time and a mandatory tracking number.
- zooplus holds partner funds for 21 days after shipping to cover refunds and states that eligible revenue is paid out weekly, with one commission invoice issued per month.
- zooplus is not the seller of record on its marketplace: under Article 16 of the zooplus.de terms the purchase contract is concluded directly between the customer and the third-party seller.
What zooplus Marketplace actually is, and where it exists
zooplus Marketplace is operated by zooplus SE, Herzog-Wilhelm-Str. 18, 80331 Munich, registered at Amtsgericht München under HRB 273759 with VAT ID DE 200 164 421. zooplus states it has been a pioneer in pet-supplies e-commerce since 1999 and operates local online shops in "more than 27 European countries". That is zooplus's own figure for its retail footprint, not its marketplace footprint, and it is not reproducible from zooplus's public country selector, which lists 24 countries plus an international .com site as of 2 September 2026.
The marketplace footprint is much smaller and much more precise. zooplus launched its German marketplace on 5 August 2026, adding 10,000 new products of which 65% sit in pet accessories. In the same announcement, Chief Merchandising Officer Pierre-Yves Delforge said: "With two marketplaces in Germany and France now launched, we're ready to accelerate our marketplace expansion." Two is the number. zooplus signals further expansion "over the coming years" but names no country and no date.
France came first. zooplus's 5 August 2026 release says the French marketplace "has tripled selection for French customers", and trade press dates the start of French marketplace sales to the end of 2024. zooplus itself publishes no French launch date. Sellers onboarded through the French page are told plainly what they can reach: asked "In which countries can I sell?", the French seller FAQ answers that you can currently sell in France on the zooplus marketplace and that new countries will soon be available. Do not model this as pan-European distribution. It is two national storefronts, and the seller-facing scope is national.
The audience zooplus names for the programme is specific: "small and medium pet enterprises and startups", supported by dedicated account managers for onboarding and ongoing operations. If you are a mid-sized pet brand that wants curated shelf space next to zooplus's own retail assortment in its two largest markets, the fit is good. If you want reach across the 27 markets zooplus advertises for its retail business, the marketplace does not deliver that today.
Access model: curated, application-only, no self-registration
This is the part that decides whether you can sell at all. There is no self-serve seller registration on zooplus Marketplace in either market. Each zooplus seller page routes applicants to its own Pipedrive CRM webform: "Anfrage senden" on the German page, "S'inscrire" on the French page and "Apply now" on the generic .com page each point to a different form, checked 2 September 2026. You cannot create an account and start listing.
zooplus describes a four-stage onboarding: you submit the application form; an internal team reviews your application to assess your potential; a video call follows; and only then do you receive a Mirakl link to create the storefront and import products. zooplus states that, depending on catalogue size, it takes approximately 7 days to start, but the seller page annotates that answer with an internal note ("we need to check, we might exclude this question for the MVP"), so treat the 7 days as provisional rather than a commitment.
Be clear about what is not published. zooplus publishes no acceptance criteria, no rejection grounds, no scoring rubric, no appeal route and no approval rate. The only public statement about the gate is that an internal team reviews your application to assess your potential. Anyone quoting you a zooplus approval rate is inventing it.
What is documented is the paperwork. For KYC, zooplus requires company registration document or documents, identity document or documents of the owner or beneficial owner, and a bank statement. For the French marketplace, partners must additionally supply their own General Terms of Sale, Right of Withdrawal and Privacy Policy, in French, in PDF format. That is three seller-authored legal documents, in French, before you go live. French partners must also provide an REP registration number, which zooplus explains is mandatory under the AGEC law depending on the categories sold, and which zooplus compares to the German LUCID number.
The single contact route for prospective and existing partners across all zooplus seller pages is info-marketplace@zooplus.com.
Commission, fees and payouts: what is published and what is not
zooplus publishes no commission percentage anywhere. Its French and English (.com) seller FAQs discuss commission and its VAT treatment but give no rate, no rate card and no category-level table, and its German seller page at zooplus.de/info/about/marktplatz is a bare application landing page with no FAQ and no fee content at all, as of 2 September 2026. Commission is set per partner during onboarding and is not public. Percentages circulating in trade press and integrator marketing do not trace back to any zooplus or integrator source that actually states them, and we do not repeat them.
Two published mechanics do matter for your model. First, the commission base: zooplus states it "will only charge the commission from the selling price+shipping cost without VAT", so shipping revenue is commissionable and the base is net of VAT. Second, the VAT treatment of the commission itself reads inconsistently across zooplus's own pages. Asked the identical question, the English .com page answers that no VAT is added, while the French page answers that businesses based in Germany will see VAT added to the commission and businesses based in other countries will not. Get this confirmed in writing at contract stage.
| Fee or term | What zooplus publishes as of 2 September 2026 | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Category commission rates | Not published. No rate, no rate card, no category table on any zooplus seller page. Set per partner during onboarding. | zooplus.com, zooplus.fr and zooplus.de seller pages |
| Commission base | Selling price plus shipping cost, excluding VAT | zooplus.com seller FAQ |
| VAT on commission | Inconsistent across zooplus's own pages: .com says none is added, .fr says German-established businesses are charged VAT and others are not | zooplus.com and zooplus.fr seller FAQs |
| Subscription / monthly fee | Exists, amount not published. No subscription fee for the first 3 months after registration | zooplus.com seller FAQ |
| Setup or onboarding fee | Not published. zooplus neither confirms nor denies one | zooplus seller pages |
| Invoicing | One commission invoice per month covering all transactions plus the monthly fee | zooplus.com seller FAQ |
| Payment processing | Adyen; zooplus collects customer payments on behalf of partners | zooplus.com seller FAQ |
| Fund hold | Funds from each order blocked for 21 days after shipping to cover refunds, then paid out | zooplus.com seller FAQ |
| Payout frequency | Eligible revenue paid weekly to the partner's bank account | zooplus.fr seller FAQ |
| Seller agreement terms | Not publicly available | zooplus seller pages |
zooplus never states how the 21-day hold and the weekly payout run together. The most likely reading is that each order becomes eligible 21 days after shipping and then joins the next weekly run, but zooplus does not publish that combination, so plan cash on the 21-day figure and treat weekly as the cadence, not the lag.
Fulfilment: there is none, and that is the design
zooplus offers no logistics or fulfilment service to marketplace sellers. Its French seller page states: "Actuellement, Zooplus ne propose pas de solution logistique pour les vendeurs du marketplace. La gestion des stocks et des inventaires est assurée directement par chaque vendeur du marketplace." Every marketplace order is a seller-fulfilled B2C shipment sent direct to the customer. There is no zooplus equivalent of FBA, and pet food is heavy, so your landed cost per parcel is the whole commercial question.
The service level is fixed. The shipping lead time for marketplace partners is 2 business days, and a tracking number must be provided so the order status changes automatically to Shipped. Shipping costs are set individually by each partner and can vary by partner and by offer, with the total shown at checkout; partners decide in the Mirakl back office whether to charge the customer or offer free shipping. Pickup and relay points (points relais) are not currently offered for zooplus Marketplace orders, though zooplus says the feature is planned. Partners must upload the customer invoice to Mirakl at the point of shipping, and zooplus then automatically emails that invoice to the customer as an attachment.
Returns, customer service and who the seller actually is
The return policy requires a minimum of 14 days after receipt, a free return label on request during the 14-day withdrawal period, and a full refund including delivery charges once the goods are returned to the partner's warehouse. Return costs within the statutory 14-day withdrawal period must be covered by the partner, who must supply a prepaid return label on request. Customer service runs through Mirakl incidents: the customer contacts zooplus, the care team opens an incident in Mirakl and asks the partner to propose a solution, the partner communicates through Mirakl and marks the incident Resolved.
Now the sentence that governs your legal exposure. zooplus is not the seller of record. The German terms are explicit that the purchase contract is concluded directly between the customer and the third-party seller ("der Kaufvertrag wird jedoch direkt zwischen dem Kunden und dem Drittanbieter geschlossen"). Article 16 of the zooplus.de terms sets out the marketplace Allgemeine Nutzungsbedingungen: zooplus acts as operator, technical intermediary and host, exercises no control over products, is not a party to purchase contracts, and disclaims liability for marketplace sales. Selling on a marketplace without being the seller is a fiction. On zooplus, the venue says so in writing.
Consumer payment methods on the marketplace are restricted to credit card or PayPal, and by derogation the PayPal account is debited only after the seller has accepted the order. The German marketplace is live for consumers: support.zooplus.de carries a "Marktplatz - Bestellungen" help section with 12 published articles covering partner orders, delivery, tracking and split shipments.
Listing, ranking and integration
Product listing guidelines are not published publicly. zooplus tells applicants: "You can find the product listing guidelines in your SELLER ACCOUNTS after you register." Partners set their own prices. Search ranking is disclosed as relevance-based, prioritising products whose title, description and product data sheet best match the search terms, with filters for price ascending, price descending, popularity and ratings; zooplus commits to disclosing where a contractual, capital or remuneration relationship influences ranking. Listings for the German storefront must be in German and for the French storefront in French, and French partners must additionally publish their own terms, withdrawal policy and privacy policy in French.
zooplus Marketplace runs on Mirakl and offers four integration routes: the Mirakl Connector (for example Shopify), a manual API connection, catalogue import via aggregators, and manual product creation by form, CSV or XLS. zooplus provides a full set of APIs for order processing, shipment updates and invoicing and works with intermediaries and aggregators, but the technical documentation is only available on request via info-marketplace@zooplus.com. Budget for that request early: you cannot scope the integration from public docs.
The compliance stack: pet food is regulated feed, not general merchandise
Seven categories are named on zooplus's English prohibited list: biocidal products (for example pesticides and disinfectants), CBD oil, live animals, live insects, electric shock collars and shock-based training equipment, products derived from endangered or protected species, and pharmacy products, which zooplus describes as a temporary block made to ensure compliance with health and safety regulations. The French page's list omits CBD oil. The pharmacy block is consistent with zooplus running its own mail-order pharmacy: the imprint names Apotheke zooplus SE, Mánesova 154/16, 407 53 Jiříkov, Czech Republic as responsible for the zooplus Versandapotheke.
Beyond zooplus's own rules, EU feed law applies to anyone placing pet food on the market, and zooplus's published seller material does not address it. Regulation (EC) No 767/2009 of 13 July 2009 governs feed labelling; Article 19 requires pet food labels to carry a free telephone number or other appropriate means of communication so purchasers can obtain information on additives and on feed materials designated by category. Regulation (EC) No 183/2005 on feed hygiene requires under Article 9(2) that feed business operators notify the competent authority of establishments active in production, processing, storage, transport or distribution of feed, with a view to registration. Regulation (EC) No 1069/2009 of 21 October 2009, the Animal By-Products Regulation, classifies petfood and feedingstuffs of animal origin as Category 3 material under Article 10(g); operators must notify and register establishments under Article 23, and establishments manufacturing pet food must in addition be approved in advance under Article 24(1)(e). Regulation (EU) 2019/4 of 11 December 2018 on medicated feed applies from 28 January 2022 and makes supply of medicated feed to animal keepers subject to a veterinary prescription under Article 16. zooplus does not cite that Regulation as the reason for its pharmacy block, and neither should you.
Packaging EPR is where the two live markets diverge. In Germany, packaging EPR runs through the LUCID Packaging Register operated by the Stiftung Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister under VerpackG, and since 1 July 2022 registration is required for all packaging types placed on the German market. Since the same date, electronic marketplaces must verify LUCID registration and system participation: only if sellers are registered and comply with the system participation requirement are electronic marketplaces allowed to offer their goods. zooplus.de is therefore legally obliged to check your LUCID status, even though its German seller page carries no FAQ and never states it as a document requirement.
In France, an identifiant unique (IDU) is issued by ADEME for each REP filière a producer falls under, so a producer holds as many IDUs as filières rather than a single number, and it has been required since 1 January 2022 under Article L. 541-10-13 of the Code de l'environnement. The IDU evidences registration in the SYDEREP declaration system and can be checked on ADEME's public producer register. A marketplace itself takes producer status for volumes it places on the market for third parties unless it holds proof that the seller has an IDU for the filière concerned, which is exactly why zooplus asks French partners for the number. French household packaging EPR, merged with graphic papers since Law 2023-305 of 24 April 2023 under a common cahier des charges, is run by three approved eco-organismes, ADELPHE, CITEO and LEKO, approved until 31 December 2029 by decrees of 23 December 2024, with OCAPEM approved as coordinating body until the same date by decree of 20 December 2024. Add local VAT registration in Germany and France, and a GPSR responsible person established in the EU. Our compliance glossary defines each of these obligations.
Frequently asked questions
Is zooplus Marketplace open to any seller?
No. zooplus Marketplace is application-only in both live markets. There is no self-serve registration: the German, French and .com seller pages each route applicants to a different Pipedrive webform. zooplus then runs a four-stage process of application, internal review of your potential, a video call, and finally a Mirakl link to build the storefront and import products.
Which countries can I sell into on zooplus Marketplace?
Two. As of its press release of 5 August 2026, zooplus has marketplaces live in Germany and France only. The French seller FAQ tells partners they can currently sell in France and that new countries will follow. zooplus advertises retail shops in more than 27 European countries, but that is its retail footprint, not its marketplace footprint.
What commission does zooplus Marketplace charge?
zooplus publishes no commission percentage and no rate card anywhere, in any language, as of 2 September 2026. Commission is set per partner during onboarding. What zooplus does publish is the base: commission is charged on the selling price plus shipping cost, excluding VAT. Any specific zooplus commission percentage you see quoted online is unsourced.
Does zooplus offer fulfilment or warehousing for marketplace sellers?
No. zooplus states it currently offers no logistics solution for marketplace sellers and that stock and inventory management is handled directly by each seller. All zooplus Marketplace orders are seller-fulfilled and shipped direct to the customer, within a 2 business day lead time, with a tracking number required so the order automatically flips to Shipped.
How and when does zooplus pay marketplace partners?
zooplus uses Adyen and collects customer payments on behalf of partners. Funds from each order are blocked for 21 days after shipping to cover potential refunds, and zooplus states that eligible revenue is paid out weekly to the partner's bank account. zooplus issues one commission invoice per month covering all transactions plus the monthly fee.
Is there a subscription fee on zooplus Marketplace?
Yes, a subscription fee exists, but zooplus does not publish the amount. zooplus states it will not charge any subscription fee for the first 3 months after registration so sellers can test the marketplace. Whether a separate setup or onboarding fee exists is neither confirmed nor denied on any zooplus page, so ask for it in writing.
What products are banned from zooplus Marketplace?
zooplus's English prohibited list names seven categories: biocidal products, CBD oil, live animals, live insects, electric shock collars and shock-based training equipment, products from endangered or protected species, and pharmacy products, blocked temporarily. The French list omits CBD oil. zooplus operates its own mail-order pharmacy through Apotheke zooplus SE in Jiříkov, Czech Republic.
Do I need packaging EPR registration to sell on zooplus?
Yes in both markets. Since 1 July 2022 German electronic marketplaces may only offer goods from sellers registered in LUCID and meeting the system participation requirement, so zooplus.de must check. In France, zooplus requires partners to supply an REP registration number; an identifiant unique has been required per filière since 1 January 2022.
Where Operator One fits
zooplus Marketplace is curated, seller-fulfilled and explicitly not the seller of record, which means the entity that applies carries the VAT registrations, the EPR registrations in Germany and France, the feed-law obligations and the consumer contract. Operator One is a Merchant of Record and Importer of Record: we become the legal seller, hold the entity and the local VAT registrations, and can act as your GPSR Responsible Person in the EU. For a brand without a German or French entity, that is the difference between an application that can be approved and one that cannot. See the full marketplace coverage, or talk to us about the two live zooplus markets.
Sources: zooplus.com marketplace seller FAQ; zooplus.fr marketplace seller FAQ; zooplus.de Marktplatz partner page; zooplus SE press release, 5 August 2026 (PDF); zooplus.de terms, Article 16 marketplace conditions; zooplus.de imprint; support.zooplus.de on marketplace delivery costs; ZSVR on marketplace obligations from 1 July 2022; ADEME on the identifiant unique; Ministere de la Transition ecologique on household packaging EPR; Regulation (EC) No 767/2009; Regulation (EC) No 1069/2009; Regulation (EU) 2019/4.