Fashion Marketplace Image Requirements: Zalando, Otto, Amazon and About You Compared
The Image Requirements of Europe's Four Big Fashion Marketplaces
If you sell fashion through Zalando, Otto, Amazon or About You, you only partly decide what your product images look like. Each of the four specifies aspect ratio, minimum resolution, background and a minimum number of views — and rejects articles that deviate. This overview places the four rule sets side by side, with a detailed page for each marketplace.
Status: August 2026. In all four cases the binding source is the respective seller or partner portal. This page is planning orientation, not a substitute for reading your own onboarding documents. Where a requirement is publicly documented, it appears here as a number; where it is not, that is stated explicitly. Nothing here is estimated.
Primary sources: Zalando image guidelines in Partner University — publicly readable and the basis for the Zalando rows below. For Amazon: the public image requirements on the seller pages plus the fashion-specific Seller Imaging Guidelines for Clothing & Accessories (PDF, Spring 2021). For About You, the Seller Center onboarding documentation. For Otto there is no public image specification; the otto.market partner site covers access and terms only. All links last checked 13 August 2026.
The Four Marketplaces Compared
| Marketplace | Aspect ratio and minimum size | Mandatory views (fashion) | Main image background | Source situation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zalando | 1:1.44 (upright), minimum 762 × 1100 px, best practice 1801 × 2600 px, JPG, max 20 MB | 3 compliant images: one catalogue view plus two further; Premium/Designer 5 | Packshot mandatory #FFFFFF; model view best practice #F1F1F1 | Publicly documented (Zalando Partner University) |
| Otto | No publicly documented aspect ratio; consistently reported by integration providers: minimum 500 × 1000 px, maximum 4500 px per side, JPG/PNG, RGB only | No publicly documented mandatory count — requirements sit in the partner area per assortment | Light and neutral (white, light grey, off-white); product fills roughly 85 % of the frame | No public primary source — the partner area is binding |
| Amazon (fashion) | At least 1600 px in height, maximum 10,000 px on the longest side, 72 dpi, JPEG preferred | Minimum 5, maximum 7 images per product (1 main plus up to 6 alternates) | Main image pure white, RGB 255/255/255 (#FFFFFF); adult apparel on-model | Publicly documented (Amazon Seller Imaging Guidelines, Spring 2021 edition) |
| About You | 3:4 (upright), minimum 1125 × 1500 px, recommended 1500 × 2000 px, JPEG max 2 MB / PNG max 4 MB | At least one bust view plus one model view; recommended 1–2 bust, 2–4 model, 1–2 detail | Bust view white or transparent; model view light grey #F4F4F5 | Publicly documented (About You Partner Documentation) |
Why Incorrect Numbers Circulate
Researching this page surfaced a pattern that explains why sellers regularly enter an onboarding with wrong assumptions: the most-quoted figures do not come from the marketplaces themselves but from secondary sources copying each other.
Zalando is the clearest example. German-language overviews frequently cite "7 views per article". That number does not appear in Zalando's own partner documentation. What is required for apparel is three compliant images: one catalogue view plus two further views. Five applies only in the Premium and Designer segment. The seven has a documentable origin: Zalando's product data feed offers seven image slots per article (images_01 through images_07). Seven is the maximum number of feed slots — not the requirement. Plan against the wrong number and you budget more than double the mandatory image production Zalando actually requires.
The practical consequence: secondary sources are usable for planning and useless for sign-off. Before any onboarding, read your own product group in the partner area. It is half an hour of work and it prevents rejected listings that then cost weeks.
What All Four Have in Common
Different as the numbers are, the substantive overlap is large. Meet these five points and you satisfy most of every rule set:
- Upright format. Zalando requires 1:1.44, About You 3:4, Amazon a minimum height of 1600 px. None of them wants square fashion images as standard. Produce square and you produce for rework.
- A neutral, light background in the main image. Pure white for Zalando packshots and Amazon main images, white or transparent for About You bust images, light and neutral at Otto.
- One product per image, no extras. Props that are not included, price information, logos, watermarks and seals are consistently unwanted or forbidden.
- Several genuinely different perspectives. All four require more than the front shot, and all four penalise submitting the same shot repeatedly to hit a mandatory count.
- Resolution that supports zoom. The floors differ, the motive is identical: the customer should be able to zoom into the fabric.
Where They Differ — and What That Costs
- Aspect ratio is the expensive difference. Zalando's 1:1.44 and About You's 3:4 are not the same format. An image produced for one can only be cropped for the other, and cropping loses either head or feet. Serving both channels means producing with margin at the top and bottom of the frame.
- The model question gets opposite answers. Amazon explicitly requires a model in the main image for adult apparel and just as explicitly forbids visible mannequins and ghost mannequins there. Zalando accepts either an invisible-mannequin packshot or a model view as the catalogue view. About You wants both side by side: a bust view and a model view.
- The mandatory count ranges from two to seven. This is why a blanket answer to how many product photos per SKU you need depends on your channel mix rather than on the product category alone.
The Production Logic: Produce for the Strictest Requirement
One rule follows from the table regardless of marketplace: do not produce for your own shop and adapt for marketplaces afterwards. Produce for the strictest requirement in your channel mix from the start. In practice that usually means Zalando, because it combines the narrowest aspect ratio with the highest best-practice resolution.
An image at 1801 × 2600 px can be cropped to About You's 3:4 and downscaled to Amazon's minimum height. The reverse does not work: an About You image at 1125 × 1500 px will not become a compliant Zalando image, because both the resolution and the aspect ratio are missing. This ordering is the single point on this page that saves money across all four marketplaces.
The second lever is separating packshot from model view. The cut-out packshot is a photographic task: one garment, a table or an invisible mannequin, a pure white background. The model views are variations of the same garment in different poses and perspectives — and that is where the volume requirement appears once you serve several marketplaces.
Producing the Views Without a Shoot
That separation is exactly where the generated route applies. GridShot produces on-model views in different poses and perspectives from an existing product photo — images two through seven, not the first one. One run returns 16 to 25 variations in 5 to 15 minutes to choose from; billing is one US dollar per published image plus the compute actually consumed, which comes to a few cents. New accounts start with USD 10 in credit.
What honestly belongs alongside that: the source photograph has to exist. The cut-out packshot for Zalando's catalogue view or Otto's main image remains a camera job. And the exact target format — Zalando's 1:1.44 at 1801 × 2600 px, About You's 3:4 at 1500 × 2000 px — is produced in a final crop and export step in your own image pipeline, not automatically during generation. Products come in by URL import, or by CSV import for larger catalogues; Shopify catalogues have a dedicated integration.
What the generated route changes is not the shot list but the cost curve: the second through seventh views no longer cost what the first one costs. What conventional production of the same volume costs is broken down in Product Photography Pricing.
The Four Detail Pages
- Zalando image requirements — mandatory images per assortment, 1:1.44, background codes, model rules, and the truth behind the number seven.
- Otto product image requirements — what is documented, what is merely reported, and how to plan against a requirement that is not published.
- Amazon image requirements for fashion — 85 %, pure white, the on-model rule for adult apparel, and the explicit ban on ghost mannequins in the main image.
- About You image requirements — bust and model view, 3:4, #F4F4F5, and what happens on rejection.
Checklist Before Your First Listing
- For every platform you serve, read your own product group in the partner area — not in an overview like this one.
- Identify the strictest requirement in your channel mix and adopt it as the production standard.
- Produce source material at a resolution that satisfies the highest target, rather than upscaling later.
- Decide per article which view becomes the catalogue or main image, and whether it has to be a packshot or a model shot.
- Verify that no image is submitted twice to satisfy a mandatory count.
- Set background values per image type instead of "roughly white".
- File names without special characters, colour space RGB.
- Push one test article all the way through onboarding before importing 300.
Frequently Asked Questions
What image requirements do Zalando, Otto, Amazon and About You have?
Zalando requires 1:1.44 upright, at least 762 × 1100 px and, for apparel, three compliant images. About You requires 3:4, at least 1125 × 1500 px and at least one bust and one model view. Amazon requires a minimum height of 1600 px for fashion, a pure white main image with 85 % frame fill, and five to seven images in total. For Otto there is no publicly documented primary source; the partner area is binding. Status: August 2026.
Is it true that Zalando requires 7 views per article?
No. The figure circulates widely but does not appear in Zalando's own partner documentation. What is required for apparel is three compliant images: one catalogue view plus two further views. In the Premium and Designer segment it is five. The seven has a documentable origin: Zalando's product data feed offers seven image slots per article (images_01 through images_07). Seven is the maximum number of feed slots — not the requirement.
Can I use the same product images across all marketplaces?
Only if they were produced for the strictest requirement. Zalando's 1:1.44 and About You's 3:4 are different aspect ratios, and an image can only be cropped, not extended. Produce at the highest required resolution with margin at the top and bottom of the frame and you can derive the other channels from it.
What happens if images do not meet the requirements?
It depends on the marketplace. At About You the article does not go live and is not charged. Amazon states that missing or non-compliant main images may result in the removal of the listing from search. Zalando rejects individual images, among other reasons for missing mandatory views, an unsuitable background, or duplicate submissions.
What resolution should I produce if I serve several marketplaces?
Take the highest target in your channel mix as the reference, usually Zalando's best practice of 1801 × 2600 px. About You's 1500 × 2000 px and Amazon's 1600 px minimum height can be derived from it. The reverse does not work: upscaling does not create detail that was never captured.