#557 - VO - Robert Gentz - Zalando - Building a Shopping Empire on Flip Flops
Génération Do It Yourself · 26 juil. 2026 · 2:12:09
Génération Do It Yourself · 26 juil. 2026 · 2:12:09
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Retrouvez l'épisode en version française ici : https://www.gdiy.fr/podcast/robert-gentz-vf/
It's the largest e-commerce company in Europe, just behind Amazon.
And it all started with flip flops.
Robert Gentz co-founded Zalando in 2008, after his first startup left him too broke to buy a flight ticket home from Mexico.
With his co-founder, they tested the market with a one-page flip flop shop in Berlin. It worked. So they built a full shoe destination on top of it.
The growth that followed is hard to believe: 6 million euros the first entire year, 160 million in year two, 500 million in year three.
Today Zalando does 20 billion euros in gross merchandise value across 29 countries.
But Europe doesn't make it easy.
Robert learned that the hard way when the TV ad that turned Zalando into a German phenomenon became "the worst ad in the Netherlands" a few months later.
Same continent, completely different reaction.
That's the real story of building at scale in Europe: 29 different markets, 29 different consumer psychologies, and no shortcuts around any of them.
In this episode, Robert reveals:
A rare look into a company that proved Europe can build at global scale in less than 20 years, and what it will take to do it again.
You can follow Robert on LinkedIn .
The GDIY15 code will get you 15% off on Zalando from €50 spent, valid until 31.07.2026 at 11:59pm.
TIMELINE:
We referred to previous GDIY episodes :
A few recent episodes in English :
Épisodes: Génération Do It Yourself
