Zalando SE is a publicly traded German online retailer which is active across Europe and specializes in shoes, fashion and beauty products.

The company was founded in 2008 by David Schneider and Robert Gentz and has more than 51 million active users in 25 European markets.

Zalando was founded in 2008 by Robert Gentz and David Schneider in Berlin with investment capital from the three Samwer brothers.

Gentz, Schneider and Oliver Samwer met each other through their studies at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management.

[25] The company operates in the following countries: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Estonia, Slovenia, Ireland, Luxembourg, Czechia, Slovakia, Croatia, the United Kingdom, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary and Romania.

In the same year, the E-commerce platform launched a TV ad in English, replicating the humorous format used in its German-language commercials.

In it, a long-suffering husband bemoans his wife's addiction to buying shoes and warns other men about the dangers of introducing women to Zalando.

In 2015, Zalando acquired a 20% stake[27] in Cheltenham-based software company Anatwine, headed by a former e-commerce director of SuperGroup, for a seven-figure sum.

Almost 50% of sales revenues are generated in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland which is defined as one geographic unit under "DACH".

In 2021, the company was said to be targeting a gross merchandise volume (GMV) of over €30bn by 2025, and in the long term wants to take more than 10% of the €450bn European fashion market.

[29] The key trends for Zalando are (as at the financial year ending December 31):[32] The German newspaper Bild reported on statements of the German Federal Economic Ministry indicating that from 2007 to 2012 Zalando received around 3.3 million euro in subsidies from regional development programs.

The Deutsche Mittelstandsnachrichten reported that the Samwer brothers’ business model is predicated on using foreign capital and cheap labour to quickly build up a company, selling it as fast as possible.

In July 2012, German TV channel ZDF broadcast a report on the packing and distribution centre operated for Zalando by a provider near Berlin.

Following the ZDF report, it was revealed that Zalando had also received a 22,5 million euro subsidy from the government of Thüringen to build new headquarters.

In April 2014, RTL broadcast the documentary Unrelenting pressure in the workplace (Arbeiten unter Dauerdruck), which had been made with the support of undercover journalist Günter Wallraff.

Journalist Caro Lobig worked undercover for three months as an order picker in the logistical center at Erfurt.

[48] In November 2015, the Centre for Protection against Unfair Competition in Germany filed a suit claiming that Zalando misled consumers on the availability of certain products suggesting that they needed to act fast to buy them.