Zappos Case Study Summary

The Case of Zappos.com 2009

Introduction

Zappos.com, a privately-held online retailer of shoes, clothing and other soft line retail categories, learned that Amazon.com, a $19 billion multinational online retailer, was about to acquire it. Zappos started as a humble beginning in 1999, when less than even 1% of shoes were sold online. How did Zappos climbed the success ladder and become a company which Amazon would look to acquire allowing it to be independent subsidiary in Amazon is the case.The case evolves about the 3C’s that Zappos set for itself and that changes the story of Zappos in a span less than a decade.

Inspired by the low service level and variety of a shoe mall at San Francisco, Nick Swinmurn, a 26-year-old marketing manager

They hired individuals to match the company’s culture and made sure that they maintained certain soft standards which were mentioned in their core Value set.

Customer Service: Zappos heavily relied on high quality customer service and made sure that the employees provided the same. They had special CLT members whose job was to provide answers to any doubt that a customer may have. They went to extraordinary lengths to satisfy the customer which included interacting with them for hours on unrelated topics. The back office job was equally important. They carousel and Kiva systems ensured that they were able to provide what was promised on time.

Clothes: Another major success factor was how Zappos was able to pull in close to 300 brands which offered shoes and clothes. This enabled them to provide whatever the customer was looking for. The employees at Zappos gave detailed explanation of the products on the site with photos from different angles. Zappos has a mission to provide all types of apparels to clothe a person from head to toe.

Evidences that supports the Zappos

They had criteria’s which made hiring a bit more complex than other companies.

Hire for Service Competencies: At Zappos they concentrated on thing more than technical skills, they wanted people who would enjoy their work. They made happiness criteria for hiring, they required the applicant to be a person who is creative, happy and a little weird other than being technically sound.

Be the Preferred Employer: Zappos had created an environment in which the employees felt comfortable. They did not have any particular hard standard in place which made the working freer. To promote their work culture, they conducted work place tour for outsiders who included academics and business personnel’s. This helped spreading the work culture of Zappos.

Develop People To deliver Service Quality:

Train People: The people working the Las Vegas office were provided with 225 hour training session on the core values of the company in which learnt and taught others. The workers from the warehouse were trained different functions to increase