Zalando SE is a European e-commerce company situated in the region of Berlin, Germany. The company follows a platform approach which offers fashion and lifestyle products to consumers in 17 European markets. Zalando was founded in the year 2008 in Germany by Rocket Internet, Robert Gentz and David Schneider, initially under the name Ifansho. After a few years, the name was changed to Zalando, a reference to the Italian word zalare (meaning "making jokes''). The Swedish company named Kinnevik is Zalando's largest stakeholder, with a 21% share. It was inspired by US online retailer Zappos.com. Zalando was initially working in manufacturing the footwear. It was specialized in the sale of footwear. In the year 2010, the company launched in the Netherlands as well as in France and added apparel to its portfolio. Later in the year 2011, the company opened online retail sites in the UK, Italy as well as in Switzerland. In the following year Zalando expanded its business to Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Belgium, Spain and Poland which gives this brand global recognition. In the year 2012 Zalando began operating outside of Germany in order to expand its business more. It started offering deliveries to Austria. Since the year 2013, following examples of tech companies from the East, especially including China, Zalando changed into a European digital platform which was mainly responsible for creating a digital interface between customer and the organization. Emulating various Chinese companies, Zalando set off remaking itself into a digital shopping mall so that the products can be delivered to the international market, allowing fashion houses as well as retailers to make sales via the Partner Program as well. It is often with limited input from Zalando.

In the year, 2014 Zalando was listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Since the date 22 June 2015 Zalando has been included in the MDAX also. In the year 2015, in order to expand the business, Zalando started collaborating with Topshop. It started selling merchandise online. The advertisements featuring the model Cara Delevingne were broadcast in Germany, Switzerland and France which gives the company a pretty good start. During the period from June 2015, the fashion trade fair "Bread & Butter" was acquired by Zalando. The main intention behind this fair was to open globally important events to a broader audience so that the brand can become globally popular as a "fashion festival". The first edition of "Bread & Butter by Zalando" took place in the year 2016; it was huge including 20,000 visitors at Arena Berlin. But, after two years later, Zalando announced the discontinuation of "Bread & Butter" due to a shift in strategy. In March 2017, Zalando acquired Kickz which is a German company, for an unknown sum. At the time, Kickz owned 15 shops in Germany. All the shops specialized in basketball footwear.  Later in the year 2018, Zalando launched Beauty in Germany, Poland and Austria and launched a beauty concept store in Berlin offering a regularly changing range in beauty products. Zalando is a big brand in all around the world dealing in various sectors, like beauty and footwear.