What makes a good brand?
Is it the people who work for you? Is it the amount of years you’ve been in establishment? Is it the sheer amount of customers you’ve serviced? Is it judged by how many followers or subscribers you have? Is it the quality of your products? Or is it, perhaps, all of the above?
Here at Zando, we’ve been striving for excellence and great service for 7 years and counting. As we celebrate this huge milestone, let’s take a look back on how we’ve grown since our first birthday to our 7th birthday.
2012
Rocket Internet, which lays claim to a global e-commerce empire (estimated 38 companies including Zalando in Germany and the UK, Locondo in Japan, The Iconic in Australia, and Zalora in Singapore) founded Zando in SA.
On the 23rd of January, Zando went live with a staff complement of approximately 28 members.
The primary aim was “to provide South Africans with the same hassle-free shopping experience that millions of shoppers around the world already enjoy. The company seeks to be more than a traditional online fashion store but rather a place where customers’ needs are both understood and satisfied.”
Zando was one of the very first niche e-commerce sites in SA, with an initial offering of footwear before expanding into clothing, accessories and cosmetics later that same year.
The first footwear that was processed from receiving stock to shooting and then uploading to the site was Havaianas.
200 Brands went online in that first year.
In 9 months, the site attracted over 200,000 unique visitors per week, and grew its number of employees from an initial 4, to over 200.
Zando landed a R224m injection from growth equity investor, Summit Partners.
2013
Zando appeared in SA’s top google ‘online shopping’ searches.
Online shoppers were satisfied with a 98% on time delivery rate for their several hundred thousand customers.
2014
E-commerce grows in SA with 13% of South African respondents shopping online weekly.
Offered 20,000 different products online, attracting 1.5 million people to the site each month.
Zando wins 2 awards in one year:
– Best customer service award
– Best shopping process award
2015
Runner up for the best e-commerce store award.
Launch of Zando Shopping app on Play Store & App Store.
2016
Zando introduced a new brand slogan, STYLE. UNRESTRICTED. along with a new mission statement ─ to convert each South African home into the biggest fashion mall in Africa. Shopping on Zando is simple, easy and truly unrestricted – anyone can shop anything, anywhere, anytime.
Zando saw an increase of orders by the factor of 11, compared to an average day.
100 items were sold every minute, orders were dispatched every 4 seconds and a whopping 22 million South Africans were reached on Black Friday alone.
2017
Zando launched the Best Price campaign, promising customers the lowest prices delivered to anywhere in South Africa ─ with the intention to beat any contending prices brought forth.
The company also increased the delivery fleet by over 50% to help alleviate the pressure caused by the high increase in shipped parcels on Black Friday.
2018
Vodacom and Zando teamed up to trial zero-rated browsing, which allowed users to surf the website at no extra data cost. This was a first for e-commerce in SA.
Zando recorded 67% of total mobile sales through its platform on Black Friday, which is up 52% from the previous year.
Zando and Huawei partnered to launch #TheWorldIsMyRunway campaign and competition.
5 Local and upcoming designers collaborated with Zando’s private label to form the Utopia x Femme Collective.
Zando launched Laced, the exclusive sneaker store, along with other niche online shops.
By midday on Black Friday, the e-commerce platform had already exceeded the total order volume of the previous year’s entire Black Friday, indicating a massive increase in sales and traffic. The top-selling categories on the site were sneakers, womenswear, and shoes.
See how we celebrated our last birthday here: Zando turns 6!
