How did Zappos become so successful?

Zappos was and today, still is no ordinary business. They weren’t just in the business of selling shoes. … 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.

What is Zappos business strategy?

We aim to inspire the world by showing it’s possible to simultaneously deliver happiness to customers, as well as employees, vendors, shareholders and the community, in a long-term, sustainable way. This vision led Zappos to deliver happiness through the four C’s: Commerce, Customer Service, Company Culture, Community.

How did Zappos start?

Zappos was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn. Swinmurn launched the company with Tony Hsieh and Alfred Lin, who invested $2 million through their investment firm Venture Frogs. … In July 1999, the company’s name was changed from ShoeSite to Zappos after “zapatos”, the Spanish word meaning “shoes”.

How Zappos has developed and maintained the three key areas over the period of time?

Looking back, I attribute most of our growth over the past few years to the fact that we invested time, money, and resources in three key areas: customer service, company culture, and employee training and development. The move to Las Vegas helped us make progress in each of the three.

How did Zappos value its customers?

One of the things that makes Zappos different from a lot of other companies is that we value being fun and being a little weird. … We want just a touch of weirdness to make life more interesting and fun for everyone. We want the company to have a unique and memorable personality.

How does Zappos treat customers?

Zappos’ CEO Tony Hsieh takes an unconventional approach to customer service. … Instead, they have everything to do with how satisfied a customer is at the end of a service interaction. Agents don’t use scripts and they never upsell. Zappos’ customer service has one, simple goal: to deliver customer happiness.

Is Zappos making a profit?

The company grew its customer base to a total of over 4 million paying customers, meaning that over 1% of the US population has bought shoes from Zappos. …

Is Zappos a successful company?

By all accounts, Zappos is a successful company. The shoe company was acquired by Amazon in 2009 in a deal valued at $1.2 billion, has been lauded in the press for its exceptionally high levels of customer service, and is praised time and time again as one of the best places to work for employees.

How does Zappos organizational culture affect the organization’s success?

Zappos is known for its weird, family spirit, and fun workplace culture. Happiness is at the core of Zappos culture. Great culture leads to employee happiness; happy employees drive higher engagement and profitability, and low turnover. Zappos has a customer-centric culture, as expressed in its purpose and core values.

What is Zappos competitive advantage?

Zappos massively differentiated themselves from its competition by building a culture that is customer-centric in every way imaginable. This is what has made Zappos a trusted destination for millions of loyal online shoppers (and it’s also why it was acquired by Amazon for close to a billion dollars).

Why did Amazon sell Zappos?

Amazon acquired Zappos for $1.2 billion in 2009, and kept Hsieh on as CEO. He said in 2010 he had decided to sell to the e-commerce giant because Amazon recognized “the uniqueness of Zappos’s culture and Amazon’s duty to protect it.

Why did Zappos change to Holacracy?

The shift to Holacracy was part of a larger effort to rethink management and operations company-wide. We recently interviewed John Bunch, Advisor to CEO Tony Hsieh and Lead of Internal Infrastructure/Systems at Zappos to find out why and how the company restructured itself to make individuals and teams more effective.

How sustainable is Zappos competitive position in the market?

The company has always maintained its sales growth rate on the long-term basis at a certain output level. Therefore, the competitive advantages of Zappos have always been sustainable. The corporate culture of the company is nurtured and developed by its management team.

What are the challenges faced by Zappos?

Zappos has addressed some critical challenges, handling them with agility, strength, and precision. The first was the 2008 Layoff. Due to the economic times, Zappos had to layoff 8% of their highly-valued employees. This was a hard decision as the company cherished every employee.

What organizational structure does Zappos use?

holacracyIn 2014, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh began shifting his company’s management structure from a standard hierarchy to a holacracy, a decentralized system meant to distribute decision-making throughout the organization.

Why do you think Zappos is not outsourcing its call centers?

Although Zappos wanted to outsource its call​ center, it chose not to outsource because it is a small company and the cost of outsourcing is too high. … Zappos is a new company and Tony Hsieh wanted to see whether it was a successful company before adding a call center.

Why does Zappos have great customer service?

One of the highlights of Zappos’ Customer Service Strategy is their 365 days Return Policy. Combined with the free 2-way shipping, this takes away the customers’ risk and makes it convenient for them to order as many shoes as they want, keep the ones that fit, and return the others at no additional cost.

Who is Zappos competition?

Zappos competitors include Gap Inc., DSW, Forever 21 and RevZilla.

What is Zappos famous for?

Twenty years ago, we began as a small online retailer that only sold shoes. Today, we still sell shoes — as well as clothing, handbags, accessories, and more. That “more” is providing the very best customer service, customer experience, and company culture.

Is Zappos a startup?

A great example of a startup that successfully used the Lean Startup methodology is Zappos. … Zappo’s founder Nick Swinmurn vision was of a central online site with a great selection of shoes with a new and superior retail experience.