By Business & Finance 
After the German e-commerce company established a technology hub in Dublin in 2015, Zalando will now set up its shop in Dublin this summer.
With this news the online outlet will now have operations in 17 countries. As well as Dublin, the Czech Republic has also been added to the list. This is the first time since 2013 the German company has entered new countries.
What is Zalando?
Zalando is an e-commerce store headquartered in Berlin. It predominantly deals in shoes, clothing and other fashion items.
It currently operates in 15 European countries but will increase that tally with the addition of Ireland the Czech Republic to its books.
The largest owner of the firm is Kinnevik, a Swedish investment company.
Who’s behind Zalando?
The management team behind the company consists of Robert Gentz, David Schneider and Rubin Ritter; Gentz and Schneider were the co-founders in 2008 while Ritter joined the board in 2010.
Ritter commented on the new expansion, saying:
We are excited to bring Zalando to new customers, and we believe our unlimited assortment, personalised shopping experience and substantial convenience offering will resonate well with Irish customers.
He continued: We are tackling our expansion smartly, leveraging knowledge from our existing European markets. And we’re operating in usual Zalando style: launch, learn, iterate and scale.
Rubin Ritter, Co-CEO, Zalando
Kenneth Melchior is the Director Northern Europe at Zalando. He will have a key role in the new formation of the company in Ireland. He said:
Ireland has a growing €5.6 billion fashion market and only 6% of this is online – compared to 18%, for example, in the UK. We see great potential for further growth and we believe that zalando.ie will be well received by Ireland’s fashion-conscious consumers.
Further plans for the Zalando fashion platform
Zalando is currently collaborating with major brands. From August on, H&M’s Monki brand will be available on Zalando’s platform throughout Europe.
Monki was founded in Sweden in 2006 and is known for its on-trend fashion of Scandinavian and Asian stylings. The name also looks to empower young women through diverse castings, communication and design. It is also the third H&M brand available on Zalando – Weekday and Cheap Monday being the other two.
Keep an eye out for the launch of the platform this summer in Ireland.
