Question
1/ 10 Zappos: Delivering Happiness This case examines Zappos' unique marketing strategy and corporate culture, both of which focus on delivering happiness to the company's varied stakeholders. Despite a few stumbles along the way, Zappos has been a role model of success since its founding in 1999. The company survived the dot-com collapse because its charismatic CEO Tony Hsieh, created a corporate culture that put its customers and employees ahead of financial success. The case looks at Zappos' business model and how it influences the company's relationships with customers, employees, the environment, and its communities. The case also discusses some of the challenges the company faces and how it plans to move into the future. Synopsis: Themes: Marketing strategy, ecommerce, branding, long-term customer relationships, customer satisfaction, corporate culture, employee relations, social responsibility, customer loyalty, corporate reputation an a company focused on happiness be successful? Zappos, an online retailer, is proving that it can. The company's revenue grew from $1.6 million in 2000 to $1.64 billion in 2010. Tony Hsieh, Zappos' CEO says, "It's a brand about happiness, whether to customers or employees or even vendors." Zappos' zany corporate culture and focus on customer satisfaction has made it both successful and a model for other companies. The History of Zappos Nick Swinmurn founded Zappos in 1999 after a fruitless day spent shopping for shoes in San Francisco. After looking online, Swinmurn decided to quit his job and start a shoe website that offered the best selection and best service. Originally called ShoeSite.com, the company started as a middleman, transferring orders between customers and suppli- ers but not holding any inventory. The website was soon renamed Zappos, after the Spanish word for shoes (zapatos). In 2000, entrepreneur Tony Hsieh became the company's CEO. Hsieh, 26 at the time, was an early investor in Zappos, having made $265 million selling his startup company to Microsoft in 1998. Hsieh wasn't initially sold on the idea of an Internet shoe store. He pe here to search
Explanation / Answer
1) Zappos a well known online retailer has designed its business objectives to provide happiness to all its stakeholders. it sees it customers and employee as key success factors rather focusing on monetary business. It is serving the online customer segment for shoe and other related accessories.
It serves its customers with in house logistics. Its business has transparent policy for the customers. to attract more customers , it advertises its businesses on online media tools like facebook, twitter etc. It takes feedback of customer through its own website as well as through other channels.
2) For any corporation, if customers will be happy and satisfied then a continuous improved or increase number of customers will be added to the company. It will provide economies of scale to the Zappos. Ultimately, it will achieve more business growth and development. CRM practices will retain the existing customers as well as attract new customers so this will increase the sales turnover and ultimately the profit margin.
3) Yes, Zappos has maintained a great relationship with its employees as well as with its customers. It provides customized solution to the customers in terms of online order and transactions. It offers loyalty discount and customer delight to its valuable customers. Their products are categorized on the basis of income and purchase habit of the customers. It gets a competitive advantage by serving the customers in best manner in the e-commerce industry. It offers unique shopping experience to its customers with hassle free transactions and business terms & conditions.
