diff --git a/doc/whats-new.rst b/doc/whats-new.rst
index c88f685b0ba..099412a065c 100644
--- a/doc/whats-new.rst
+++ b/doc/whats-new.rst
@@ -22,6 +22,9 @@ v2023.10.2 (unreleased)
 New Features
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
+- Writing to an existing zarr file with differently ordered, but identically
+  named, dimensions is supported.
+  By `Maximilian Roos  <https://github.com/max-sixty>`_.
 
 Breaking changes
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
diff --git a/xarray/backends/common.py b/xarray/backends/common.py
index 5b8f9a6840f..6f0896435f0 100644
--- a/xarray/backends/common.py
+++ b/xarray/backends/common.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 import os
 import time
 import traceback
-from collections.abc import Iterable
+from collections.abc import Hashable, Iterable, Mapping
 from glob import glob
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any, ClassVar
 
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 from xarray.core.parallelcompat import get_chunked_array_type
 from xarray.core.pycompat import is_chunked_array
 from xarray.core.utils import FrozenDict, NdimSizeLenMixin, is_remote_uri
+from xarray.core.variable import Variable
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
     from io import BufferedIOBase
@@ -271,7 +272,7 @@ def sync(self, compute=True, chunkmanager_store_kwargs=None):
 class AbstractWritableDataStore(AbstractDataStore):
     __slots__ = ()
 
-    def encode(self, variables, attributes):
+    def encode(self, variables: Mapping[Hashable, Variable], attributes: Mapping):
         """
         Encode the variables and attributes in this store
 
diff --git a/xarray/backends/zarr.py b/xarray/backends/zarr.py
index d6ad15f4f87..d07db54c6d2 100644
--- a/xarray/backends/zarr.py
+++ b/xarray/backends/zarr.py
@@ -320,14 +320,19 @@ def encode_zarr_variable(var, needs_copy=True, name=None):
     return var
 
 
-def _validate_existing_dims(var_name, new_var, existing_var, region, append_dim):
+def _validate_existing_dims(
+    var_name, new_var, existing_var, region, append_dim
+) -> Variable:
     if new_var.dims != existing_var.dims:
-        raise ValueError(
-            f"variable {var_name!r} already exists with different "
-            f"dimension names {existing_var.dims} != "
-            f"{new_var.dims}, but changing variable "
-            f"dimensions is not supported by to_zarr()."
-        )
+        if set(new_var.dims) == set(existing_var.dims):
+            new_var = new_var.transpose(*existing_var.dims)
+        else:
+            raise ValueError(
+                f"variable {var_name!r} already exists with different "
+                f"dimension names {existing_var.dims} != "
+                f"{new_var.dims}, but changing variable "
+                f"dimensions is not supported by to_zarr()."
+            )
 
     existing_sizes = {}
     for dim, size in existing_var.sizes.items():
@@ -347,6 +352,8 @@ def _validate_existing_dims(var_name, new_var, existing_var, region, append_dim)
             f"explicitly appending, but append_dim={append_dim!r}."
         )
 
+    return new_var
+
 
 def _put_attrs(zarr_obj, attrs):
     """Raise a more informative error message for invalid attrs."""
@@ -614,12 +621,10 @@ def store(
             variables_encoded.update(vars_with_encoding)
 
             for var_name in existing_variable_names:
-                new_var = variables_encoded[var_name]
-                existing_var = existing_vars[var_name]
-                _validate_existing_dims(
+                variables_encoded[var_name] = _validate_existing_dims(
                     var_name,
-                    new_var,
-                    existing_var,
+                    variables_encoded[var_name],
+                    existing_vars[var_name],
                     self._write_region,
                     self._append_dim,
                 )
diff --git a/xarray/tests/test_backends.py b/xarray/tests/test_backends.py
index 59e9f655b2e..180bcb61c6c 100644
--- a/xarray/tests/test_backends.py
+++ b/xarray/tests/test_backends.py
@@ -2439,6 +2439,19 @@ def test_to_zarr_append_compute_false_roundtrip(self) -> None:
                 with self.open(store) as actual:
                     assert_identical(xr.concat([ds, ds_to_append], dim="time"), actual)
 
+    def test_to_zarr_append_with_transposed_dims_works(self) -> None:
+        original = create_test_data().chunk()
+
+        with self.create_zarr_target() as store:
+            self.save(original, store)
+
+            to_append = original.transpose(*reversed(list(original.dims)))
+
+            self.save(to_append, store, mode="a")
+
+            with self.open(store) as actual:
+                assert_identical(original, actual)
+
     @pytest.mark.parametrize("chunk", [False, True])
     def test_save_emptydim(self, chunk) -> None:
         if chunk and not has_dask: