In 2008, buying shoes and fashion online was considered close to impossible to scale. Fit, feel and material mattered too much, and most people believed customers would never commit to a purchase without trying something on first. E-commerce worked for books and electronics, fashion was seen as the category that would resist it the longest.

Zalando proved that assumption wrong. Free shipping and returns removed the one barrier that mattered, the risk of getting the size or fit wrong, and turned buying fashion online from a leap of faith into a normal transaction. What looked like a stubborn category, resistant to e-commerce by nature, became one of its biggest success stories.

Zalando grew from a small online shoe shop into the Europe’s largest e-commerce company, spanning shoes, fashion and beauty with logistics across more than 25 markets. It stands as one of the clearest proofs that an idea dismissed as unworkable can become the market's new default, given the right execution and the right moment.

Zalando grew from a small online shoe shop into the Europe’s largest e-commerce company, spanning shoes, fashion and beauty with logistics across more than 25 markets. It stands as one of the clearest proofs that an idea dismissed as unworkable can become the market's new default, given the right execution and the right moment.