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A few years back, I went to their office tour in Vegas, and I've read Hsieh's book, which doesn't cover much of the post-Amazon years. It seemed pretty clear t
by jerlam 6y ago
A few years back, I went to their office tour in Vegas, and I've read Hsieh's book, which doesn't cover much of the post-Amazon years.
It seemed pretty clear to me that Zappos was in decline as an independent entity. Fulfillment was already gone. They were in the middle of removing their product photography team. A section of their office was being used as a community co-working space. There were fun quirky office areas but completely devoid of employees. It wasn't clear if Zappos did anything beyond customer service. I don't know if Tony Hsieh could really call himself a CEO anymore under Amazon's thumb.
Zappos was really proud of their long weird onboarding process. They stress over and over their core values. You write and perform a skit about those core values to the company when you "graduate". At the end, if you don't think Zappos is the place for you, they'll pay you a few thousand dollars to leave. I'd imagine that people who aren't completely in love with the company would never go through this process.
- pb7 6y agoInterviewed there for an internship way back. It's basically a cult. I was relieved to find out other companies to be expectedly normal after having Zappos be my introduction to the professional world.
- nradov 6y agoSome people can pretend to believe anything for a paycheck.
- specialist 6y agoOthers need some kind of beliefs to rationalize the modest paychecks.
- ashtonkem 6y agoThere’s a fine line between trying to to welcome people to a new culture, and being creepy. Personally I find the “we’re a family” attitude of a lot of these places deeply offputting; most families won’t lay off members when things get tough economically, so let’s stop pretending that we’re doing this for fun.
- chiefalchemist 6y ago> It wasn't clear if Zappos did anything beyond customer service. But ultimately, isn't that what Zappos is? Their bread & butter? Footware is a commodity. Ecomm stores more or less a commodity. Fulfillment? The same. The key point to being unique? Service. A lesson more ebusinesses wpuld be wise to learn.
- gowld 6y agoZappos was free returns.
- chiefalchemist 6y agoThe irony? Ppl then order more and are likely to keep more. Free returns is a means, not an ends.
- dexterdog 6y agoMost people I know order 3 or more to try and keep the one they like returning the others. Not sure how you can compete on price when people are doing that.
- mdorazio 6y agoEasy. Don't compete on price. Compete on long-term customer value.
- ashtonkem 6y agoCustomers will pay a premium if they think you’re going to take care of them. That’s basically the business model of REI; they rarely have the best prices, but if something breaks they’ll make it right.
- chiefalchemist 6y agoMy ecomm rule is: "Doubt is a dealbreaker." Whether the question is returns or something else. Few will open their wallet if they have doubt. Unlimited and free returns removed a large amount of doubt. If fact, as mentioned, it likely triggered more sales. You'd have to spend a significant amount of marketing budget to get what Zappos did from their return policy and customer service. Those weren't expenses, they were investments. This actually applies to all relationships.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]