Apparel e-Tail

The Za's

Zalando & Zappos: 
Huge players in shoe e-tail, one from Europe and the other from States.
Why or what is so special with them, which made me write this article? Let us read through to find that out.

Founded : 
Zappos -  1999
Zalando - 2008
The creators were customers then & both were founded at the point when they could not find a shoe which they were looking for.

Employees:
Zappos - 1500+ 
Zalando - 10,000 ( of which 1000+ are tech employees)

Turnover:
Zappos  - 1.2 Billion USD (2009)
Zalando - 3.0 Billion Euro (2015)

User Experience:
Both are good in its own way but Zalondo looks trendy and Zappos is text based 

Shopping 
Both needs user to login to purchase , Zappos ,user creation is short whereas Zalando needs more details but the difference could be because of the Continents ,IT policies.

Payment Methods:
Zappos: Card payment & Deliverable within USA.
Zalando : 20+ Payment methods & Deliverable to 15 countries in EU.

Technology:
Zappos: Uses SSL secure shopping method.
Zalando: Uses 3DS , safe password method.

Social Media:
Zappos: Can shop directly from Facebook page , 413 videos posted so far in Youtube.
Zalando: Redirects to download app , 557 videos posted so far in youtube.

Conclusion:
They are unique in its own way.

In his book named "Delivering Happiness" Tony Hsieh - CEO of zappos, penned the process and how hard it was during initial days to give life to it. 

Zalando - Took a great effort in Quality and return policies , they took baby steps but very strong steps to be 10,000 employees today.

But what is so unique or common between them other than that they started from the idea of selling shoes is culture. 

Thats the magic of their success.

Culture
 Zappos & Zalando , cherry picks each employees to make sure that they are well cultured.

A beautiful Infographic about Zalando by Daniel McLoughlin