What is Zappos? Zappos Review

CEO Introduction

The company's CEO Tony Hsieh gave up his job as an Oracle programmer in early 1996 and started LinkExchange in a two-bedroom apartment with $20,000 in capital. In May 1997, he received a $3 million investment from Sequoia Capital, and in November 1998, Microsoft announced that it would acquire LinkExchange for $265 million in stock.

After that, the 24-year-old Tony Hsieh became an angel investor. In 1999, he met a younger entrepreneur than himself, Nick Swinmurm. Swinmurm opened an online shoe store ShoeSite. Tony Hsieh thought the idea was great, so he invested $500,000 and changed the name of the website to Zappos.

Six months later, Tony Hsieh joined the company to run the business with Swaim, and officially became the CEO of Zappos in 2000. Tony Hsieh later invested more than $10 million in Zappos as an individual and through his venture capital firm Venture Frogs, and introduced an investment of about $44 million from Sequoia Capital.

Amazon's acquisition reasons

1. Zappos has strong growth prospects

2. Zappos has a unique culture that allows Bred to achieve his success. At the same time, it is a company that even Amazon cannot be held responsible for.

3. Zappos is famous for its famous customer service, and Amazon believes this will be a fortune in the future.

4. Amazon bought Zappos for the people of Zappos: its management and employees.

Business philosophy

To make it easier for customers to choose, Zappos took photos of each shoe in stock from eight angles.

Zappos moved its warehouse to the airport near UPS express, the express delivery company ranked as the 9th largest airline in the world, thus easing the anxious mood of customers.

Zappos promises its customers that if they feel the shoes they buy are not suitable, the shipping and return shipping will be free.

Later, Zappos launched a post-sales delayed payment method, which allows customers to not pay within 90 days after purchasing Zappos products. This corresponds to free returns and exchanges, which once again relieves customers of decision-making pressure.

Sales

In 2000, Zappos' sales totaled $1.6 million.

By the end of 2002, Zappos had sales of $32 million but was not profitable.

In 2004, Zappos' sales were $184 million, double the previous year, making it the largest online shoe seller.

In 2005, the company's sales reached $371 million, doubling again and entering the list of the 500 fastest growing companies in the United States.

In 2006, Zappos' sales reached $597 million, with more than 500 brands and more than 90,000 types of shoes.

In 2007, Zappos' sales reached $840 million, net profit was $1.8 million, and it added 1,100 brands.

In 2008, gross revenue exceeded $1 billion, net income was $625 million (up 21% year-on-year), earnings before interest, taxes and amortization (EBITA) exceeded $40 million, and net income was $10.8 million.

In the first quarter of 2010, Zappos net sales increased 50%.

Financing

In 1999, Tony Hsieh invested $500,000 in Swaim's online store ShoeSite and renamed it Zappos. Soon after, Tony Hsieh invested another $10 million in Zappos.

When Zappos was first founded, Michael Moritz led a $48 million venture capital investment.

In 2004, Sequoia Capital injected $10 million in venture capital into Zappos. Together with other investors, Zappos received a total of $20 million. The following year, Sequoia Capital injected another $15 million into Zappos.

Development

At the end of 2006, Zappos opened its first directly-operated store in Las Vegas.

In 2007, Time magazine named it one of the "25 Websites You Can't Live Without."

In early 2008, Nick Swinmurn stepped down from the management team.

In November 2009, Amazon.com acquired Zappos.com for $1.2 billion.

On May 1, 2010, Zappos reorganized into ten independent companies under the Zappos Family umbrella.

References

• 1. Harvard graduate sells shoes online, Zappos' annual sales reach 800 million yuan: Sohu [cited date 2018-08-07T16:00:00.000Z]
• 2. Four reasons why Amazon acquired Zappos: Internet News [cited on 2009-08-02T16:00:00.000Z]