Uhm, fashion is one of the hardest things to deal with. Fashion inventory is almost worthless a season or two after it launches. What zappos sells are what are

Uhm, fashion is one of the hardest things to deal with. Fashion inventory is almost worthless a season or two after it launches. What zappos sells are what are labeled FMCG - fast moving consumer goods. In this instance, you want almost no inventory, but extremely effective supplier partnerships and delivery cycles. What they have is a really engaged consumer community who can help them predict what they might want to buy soon. If they use the metrics efficiently enough, they can stock the really popular lines and get-the-numbers-right on the slower but better margined products. If you could run zappos/amazon scale and drop ship from manufacturer... well - that's the goal. (See timbuk2 et al for more).