Zalando
 |
|
| Societas Europaea | |
| Traded as | : ZAL |
| Industry | Online retailing |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Founder | Rocket Internet, Robert Gentz, David Schneider |
| Headquarters | Berlin, Germany |
|
Area served
|
Europe |
|
Key people
|
Robert Gentz (Chairman, President & CEO), David Schneider, Rubin Ritter |
| Revenue |
 € 2.958 billion (2015) |
|
€ 89.6 million (2015) |
|
|
Number of employees
|
9,987 (December 2015) |
| Subsidiaries | Zalando Lounge, MyBrands Zalando Verwaltungs GmbH, MyBrands Zalando eLogistics, MyBrands Zalando eServices, MyBrands Zalando eStudios, MyBrands Zalando eProductions, zLabels GmbH, EMEZA, KIOMI |
| Website | www |
Zalando SE is a European electronic commerce company seated in Berlin. The company maintains a cross-platform online store that sells shoes, clothing and other fashion items. The company was founded in Germany in 2008, and since has begun operating in fourteen European countries and worldwide with spin-offs and subsidiary companies.
Zalando was created in 2008 by Rocket Internet, Robert Gentz and David Schneider, initially under the name Ifansho. Inspired by US online retailer Zappos.com, Zalando initially specialised in the sale of footwear but has since included other areas of fashion and sports.
In 2009 Zalando began operations outside of Germany when it started offering deliveries to Austria. In 2010 the company launched in the Netherlands and France, and in 2011 it opened online retail sites in the UK, Italy and Switzerland. In 2012 it launched in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Belgium, Spain and Poland.
Since 2013, inspired by tech companies from the East, especially China, Zalando decided to overhaul its successful European online fashion store into a digital platform. Emulating Chinese companies, Zalando set off into remaking itself into a digital shopping mall, allowing fashion houses and retailers to make sales as well, often with limited input from Zalando.
In 2014 Zalando was listed on the . Since 22 June 2015, Zalando has been included in the MDAX. In 2015, Zalando started collaborating with Topshop and began selling merchandise in their physical stores. Advertisements featuring the model Cara Delevingne were broadcast in Germany, Switzerland and France.
In June 2015, the Berlin-based fashion trade fair "Bread & Butter" was acquired by Zalando, with the intention to open the globally important event to a broader audience as a "fashion festival".
The core of Zalando's operations is conducted in Germany with centralized management located in their Berlin headquarters. Amidst waves of business outsourcing, especially since the financial crisis, Zalando's choice to operate and manage its logistics centers in-house has led critics to conclude that the company was digging itself an early grave. The company made firm its belief that it could only optimize its business operations by taking care of the management itself. Internet technology is at the heart of their operations, employing over 1000 IT-workers alone in countries with locational advantages in IT in Ireland (Dublin) and Finland (Helsinki). They have actively developed and optimized its logistic centers to cut down on costs and to increase speed of preparing the customer's order.
...
Wikipedia