AI-powered dual-arm robots have entered live operations processing fashion returns for Zalando at CEVA Logistics facilities in Greven, Germany and Świebodzin, Poland — the first operational phase of a wider European rollout.

The systems, built by German robotics firm Sereact, run on the company's physical AI platform and identify, grasp and sort returned fashion items without per-item product training or fixed SKU profiles. That capability matters commercially: returns have long resisted warehouse automation because garments arrive in unpredictable conditions and packaging, defeating conventional pre-programmed robotics.

Sereact said its technology allows the robots to group previously unseen items, removing the mapping burden that has historically made high-SKU fashion returns uneconomic to automate.

How the deal is structured?

CEVA is delivering the deployment through a Robotics-as-a-Service model, shifting capital expenditure into an operating cost and lowering the barrier to scaling the initiative across additional European sites. The companies framed the Greven and Świebodzin deployment as the first phase of a broader push into automated returns handling across Europe.

For 3PLs and retailers watching from the sidelines, the RaaS structure signals how automation vendors are now pricing complex handling: pay per capability delivered, not per robot installed.

What changes for warehouse workers?

The robots take on repetitive handling tasks, reducing physical strain on warehouse employees. Human roles shift toward:

• station supervision
• exception management
• quality control

Masood Choudhry, SVP logistics at Zalando, said: "At the heart of our collaboration with Sereact and CEVA is a fundamental belief: true innovation happens when technology and human potential advance together. By solving the most complex challenges in modern fulfilment today, we are actively shaping the future of e-commerce logistics for fashion and lifestyle."

The framing is deliberate. Returns sorting ranks among the most injury-prone and turnover-heavy jobs in fulfilment, and the partners are positioning automation as redeployment rather than replacement.

Why Zalando backed the technology?

The live deployment follows Zalando's participation as a strategic investor in Sereact's Series B funding round in July 2026. The retailer now sits on both sides of the transaction — customer and shareholder — mirroring a pattern of vertical integration into automation supply chains increasingly common among large e-commerce operators seeking priority access to scarce robotics capacity.

For Zalando, fashion returns are a structural cost: high return rates are intrinsic to online apparel, and every automated touchpoint in triage, sorting and routing compounds into margin recovery at European scale.

The project's wider context plays out at IntraLogisteX Düsseldorf, where logistics, fulfilment and supply chain leaders gather on 16-17 June 2027 — a venue where Sereact-style physical AI deployments are likely to feature prominently on automation agendas.

With the first sites running, the initiative's trajectory now depends on throughput performance at Greven and Świebodzin, and on how quickly CEVA converts the RaaS model into additional automated returns capacity across its European network.