a business idea that came to fruition after an unsuccessful shoe shopping
expedition at the mall was bought out at a 1.2 billion
value just 10 years later let's talk about the success story of zappos
next sun moon went shoe shopping for a pair of air walk desert boots
he found the color he wanted but not the size
then he found a size that fit but not in the colour he wanted
unimpressed nick left the shopping mall later to quit his job
and founded what is today known as zappos
in 1999 nick had this idea that no investor wanted to touch selling
shoes online but this did not stop him he had done his research meeting venture
frogs tony shay's investment company he
delivered his pitch in three sentences footwear is a 40 billion dollar industry
in the united states of which catalog sales make up two
billion dollars it is likely that e-commerce will
continue to grow and it is likely that people will continue to wear shoes in
the foreseeable future nick knew there was a turning point
coming in the retail market tony shea saw the vision and potential
bought into the idea by investing 500 million dollars and soon
became co-ceo with nick zappos was initially launched
under the domain name shoesite.com but was soon changed to
something more unique zappos name was adapted from the spanish
word for shoes zapatos nick and tony very early on
defined their core business values they wanted to be the company known for
wowing their customers and delivering the best customer service
they quickly learned if they were to deliver the best service
they needed to be in full control of each customer's buyer's journey
so they switched the inventory model abandoned 25 percent of their revenue
stream that was drop shipping and expanded their own warehouse this
was a risky move financially in the short term
as well as the long term many brands would not sell to them anymore
because they were worried that zappos would cannibalize their brick and mortar
sales a turning point for this was when doc
martens came on board other brands then began to see that
zappos was not killing their brand in 2006 nick decided to leave zappos
leaving tony the sole ceo which today he still remains
a few years later in 2009 amazon acquired zappos
in an agreement with 1.2 billion dollars at closing
at this time this acquisition was one of the biggest in retail history
leading zappos to be one of the biggest companies in the world
part of the agreement was that amazon would maintain a hands-off approach and
allow zappos to run the way it always had with a unique company
culture full of fun and weirdness zappos was
and today still is no ordinary business they weren't just in the business of
selling shoes they were in the business of delivering happiness and exceptional
service and just happened to sell shoes they
raised the bar for customer service and taught customers to demand better
satisfaction at the same time one of the ways they
have offered the best customer experience
is by never charging for shipping someone could buy 10 pairs of shoes
try them all on at home see if they work with their outfits or not
and return any of them without paying a single cent for shipping
they actually made a loss by offering free shipping but no one else was doing
this at the time they chose the option to rather invest
in things that improved the customer experience
rather than use those funds for marketing to them they were investing in
what really matters in delivering their core business principles
so customer service was the emphasis of their business
but their number one priority was their company culture
hiring the right people is the main path to success
by creating and maintaining the culture of the company the rest will be a
natural byproduct zappos hired those who are passionate
about what zappos stood for service they didn't care if these
individuals were passionate about shoes or not once recruited
no matter their role every single new hire went for the same four week
training towards the end of this training new
hires were even offered a payment to leave the company
this weeded out those who really weren't invested in the job
company or what it stood for a large part of this training was on the
customer service side of things zappos focused on customer service
through direct calls which is often overlooked zappos is easy
to contact they're available 24 7 have friendly
reps who go above and beyond to surprise customers
there have even been instances where zappos has given up on immediate profits
for customer relationships they've provided links to their customers
to their competitors websites if their competitors had stock of a product that
they did not customer service reps did not have
scripts nor were they there to upsell the customer
they were empowered to help over the years
zappos has learned when you treat your customers well you are making sure they
will buy again creating a positive productive
culture is zappos bread and butter they
identified their core values hired by them onboarded team members by
them and truly live by them from there a
business is a long-term path to success profit and growth
a little over 20 years ago shoesite.com was a small online retailer that sold
only shoes today now known as zappos they sell
shoes as well as clothing handbags accessories
and more that more is providing the very best
customer service customer experience and company culture
zappos has built their success on these foundations
so what core principles do you and your company stand for
what type of business culture do you have we'd love to hear about these
so let us know in the comments below thanks for checking us out today we hope
you enjoyed the success story stay tuned for more ecommerce related
topics coming your way until next time
you