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As an aside: I hadn't bought anything off Zappos for years, and checked it out when the news hit and surprised that it still basically looks the same as I remem
by tempsy 6y ago
As an aside: I hadn't bought anything off Zappos for years, and checked it out when the news hit and surprised that it still basically looks the same as I remember it maybe 10+ years ago. Certainly looks and feels like an eCommerce website from the late 2000s/early 2010s.
I'm curious if this was an intentional choice or a sign the website has been on cruise control since the acquisition. It certainly makes me wonder what Hsieh was doing as CEO as late as this summer either way, which is to say while he was certainly a pioneer in the 2000s I'm not sure what about Zappos in the 10+ years post-acquisition feels cutting edge.
- PaulWaldman 6y agoAudible maintainted their pre-Amazon aquisiton site for quite some time as well. Their mobile app still has the same look and feel. Maybe this is a reflection of being aquired by Amazon?
- ashtonkem 6y agoGoodreads too.
- subpixel 6y agoMy impression - perhaps incorrect - was that everything on Zappos was also on Amazon. Zappos became an Amazon channel and lead generator.
- CydeWeys 6y agoYou buy shoes through amazon.com now (with fulfillment by Zappos). That's where all the development has gone. I get the feeling zappos.com is a dead end.
- tempsy 6y agoYeah that makes sense, but then my question is why did Hsieh stay as CEO for that long in what was basically a dead end company within Amazon? It doesn’t seem like that is something someone like Hsieh would ever want to do, and yet he stayed there for a decade post acquisition.
- twblalock 6y agoBased on the accounts that are now coming out, the guy had been living in a fantasy world for some time. He was probably happy to stay at Zappos as long as it made him feel good. He didn't actually need to be good at business anymore because Amazon was running the show. After leaving, he decamped to Park City and paid former colleagues to join him there, to continue the party, because that is what Zappos leadership had become by that point: a party free from the daily duties and concerns of running a company that needed to succeed in the market in order to survive.
- CydeWeys 6y agoIt actually sounds like the perfect position for him. He had an impressive-sounding title of CEO of Zappos without ever actually having to do much; it was a sinecure that let him focus most of his energy on the stuff he cared more about towards the end of his life, like his Vegas project, partying, and drugs.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 6y agoI got a notice from Zappos some years ago about a security breach they suffered where customer information was exposed. In compensation, they offered a discount on next purchase. This offer of course had a relatively short time limit, not the same as a gift certficate or store credit. I never remember reading about this security breach publicly. Maybe I just missed it.
- throwaway201103 6y agoIf it works why change it?