What kind of company is online fashion retailer Zalando?

Summary: Eric Schmidt, Google's chairman, recently delivered a speech in Berlin, referring to a Schmidt retail company Zalando in the United States and, together with Amazon, as one of the biggest threats to Google's search business. Many want to

Eric Schmidt, Google's chairman, recently delivered a speech in Berlin, referring to Zalando, a retail company that has little knowledge in the United States, and to share it with Amazon as one of the biggest threats to Google's search business. Many consumers who want to shop are going to the Amazon and Zalando sites rather than Google when they search for products online.

So what kind of company is Zalando? BI introduces it briefly:

Headquartered in Berlin, Zalando is a very successful online fashion retailer. The company sells brands of clothing, shoes, hats, bags and ornaments, and its business spans 14 countries in Europe, including Britain, France and Italy.

Zalando's model is similar to that of AOL's online retailer Zappos, but the latter was acquired by Amazon in 2009. Many say Zalando are just Zappos clones, and this is not groundless. Zalando is one of a number of companies helped by the "Rocket Internet", a German E-commerce technology consultancy and capital Operations services company, which is known for its successful cloning of American technology companies in the European market.

But Zalando has been a major success in addressing Europe's demographic and logistical complexities. Zalando has a specific website in many countries, with many logistics centers, including the supposedly largest electric dealer warehouse in Europe.

Zalando was listed on the German stock exchange in early October. Although its IPO financing was a bit disappointing and share prices fell, Zalando's courage was commendable. It was listed before the plunge in global share prices, and the economic climate in Germany and Europe was worrisome.

Zalando's revenue is encouraging, with its last fiscal year at $2.3 billion trillion. August, Zalando announced the first half of 2014 revenue of about 1.4 billion U.S. dollars.