1 Zalando x AI Agent
MOVE
Zalando will let its AI agent buy from other retailers.
On 3 November, Zalando announced ‘Zalando Extended’, an AI agent that will be able to buy products it does not sell, without clients leaving the Zalando platform. The move is currently in pilot with home retailer Westwing, which extends Zalando’s offer beyond the stock it carries itself.
SIGNAL
A relationship is stronger than a transaction.
Zalando has 63 million active clients. It is not just interested in stocking what they want, it wishes to be where they ask. And when the retailer becomes the agent, other brands – even competitors – can become the stock. Zalando has recognised that it can maintain a relationship even when it does not make the sale.
QUESTION
Who will get blamed if something goes wrong?
In practice, Zalando could recommend a product, its agent could handle the purchase, and another retailer could fulfil it. The retailer that owns the relationship has more to lose than the one that makes the sale. A transaction is easy to refund, rebuilding trust is much harder.
Read Zalando’s announcement here.

2 Apple x Raw Mango x Diwali
MOVE
Apple celebrates Diwali with a film shot on an iPhone 18 Pro.
To celebrate Diwali, one of India’s most important festivals, Apple released ‘Step Into the Light’, a film created with Indian fashion label Raw Mango. Filmed at Tijara Fort in Rajasthan, the cast wear Raw Mango saris and dance in synchronised choreography. Actress Juhi Chawla makes a cameo.
SIGNAL
A stereotype can be changed by the person telling the story.
The choreography centres on the Indian head bobble, a gesture that communicates agreement and understanding. Apple conceived the film and handed direction to someone inside the culture, Sanjay Garg, who exaggerates the gesture and makes it playful, celebrating Indian identity.
QUESTION
Does being part of a culture give you the right to represent it?
Belonging to a culture and speaking for it are two different things. We assume that involving local creators guarantees authenticity, but culture is not a single experience. Even people within the same culture can still disagree with how it is shown.
Personally, as an Indian woman by heritage, I think the film is brilliant. #proud.
See the film here.

3 Oner Active x Scent
MOVE
Oner Active opens its first store, which smells of tequila.
Oner Active’s first store in Manhattan has been scented with tequila notes. Founder Krissy Cela, who launched the brand in 2020, said: “I want more tequila than wheatgrass”. The bespoke fragrance was developed in Italy and rejects the usual associations of wellness with green and clean.
SIGNAL
Being healthy does not mean being good.
Fitness is usually associated with discipline and control. Tequila represents the opposite: celebration and letting go. A fitness brand that smells of tequila reveals something about how it thinks and that looking after your body does not mean denying yourself.
QUESTION
What is the point of being good, if you cannot be bad?
We spend so much time trying to eat well and exercise, but the point of being healthy is to enjoy life, and sometimes that enjoyment comes with tequila. Oner Active is not just promising a good workout, it is promising a good night out. See you on the dance floor.
Visit Oner Active’s Instagram.

Want more?
Edition #21: Move 1, “Attention can scale. Intimacy may not.”
Edition #7: Move 1, “Cultural confidence no longer needs (over)production.”
Edition #28: Move 3, “Responsibility doesn’t end when the product is sold.”
Read past editions of Signals & Moves

Image reference: Zalando, Apple/ Raw Mango, Oner Active.
Sources: Zalando, Reuters, The Next Web, ThePrint, B&T, Hypebae, Glossy, FashionNetwork