Zappos.com is an online shoe and clothing retailer based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The company was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn and launched under the domain name Shoesite.com. In July 2009, Amazon acquired Zappos in an all-stock deal worth around $1.2 billion.
Zappos was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn, who says that his initial inspiration came when he failed to find a pair of brown Airwalks at his local mall. That same year, Swinmurn approached Tony Hsieh and Alfred Lin with the idea of selling shoes online. Hsieh was initially skeptical, and almost deleted Swinmurn’s voice mail. After Swinmurn mentioned that “footwear in the U.S. is a 40 billion dollar market and 5% of that is already being sold by paper mail order catalogs,” Hsieh and Lin decided to invest $2 million through their investment firm Venture Frogs. The company was officially launched online in 1999 as “ShoeSite.com.”
In July 1999, the company’s name was changed from ShoeSite to Zappos after “zapatos,” the Spanish word meaning “shoes.” In 2000, Venture Frogs invested capital into the business and allowed Zappos to move into their office space. In 2001, Hsieh came on board as co-CEO with Nick Swinmurn.
Industry | Retail |
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Products | Shoes, handbags, eyewear, accessories, clothing |
Related Retail Companies: | Walmart, IKEA, Zara, Supreme, Lego, Best Buy , Warby Parker, Avon, Adidas, Mattel, Nordstrom, Blue Nile, Louis Vuitton, Interco, Gucci, Piaget, Canon, Swatch, Build-A-Bear, Nestle, Michelin, Lenovo, New Balance, Converse, L.L.Bean |
Case Description: If you like shoes and shop online, you probably have heard of Zappos. com. Nick Swinmurn was inspired to found the firm after a frustrating shopping excursion in San Francisco where he failed to find a properly fitting pair of shoes in the right size, style and color. Swinmurn translated his unpleasant shopping […]
1. Zappos transformed the shopping experience by providing online market place and making customers comfortable buying shoes in the internet. The core competency which distinguishes Zappos from competitors was a focus on service (it was service company selling shoes). The following sources of competitive advantages allowed the company to gain and maintain this competency: fast […]
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