The fashion retailer Zalando was founded in 2008.
Zalando was established in Berlin, Germany, by Robert Gentz and David Schneider, initially under the name Ifansho. The business was inspired in part by the online footwear model used by Zappos in the United States. It began by focusing on shoes and later expanded into clothing, accessories, beauty, and broader fashion services.
The company’s growth reflected the wider shift of European fashion retail from catalogs and stores toward online platforms. Zalando invested heavily in logistics, returns, brand partnerships, and localized websites so that customers in different European markets could shop in familiar languages and currencies.
Zalando is not the same company as About You or ASOS. Those are separate European fashion-commerce businesses with different founding histories. Zalando’s original focus on shoes is also easy to overlook because its later assortment became much broader.