[jerlam]

A few years back, I went to their office tour in Vegas, and I've read Hsieh's book, which doesn't cover much of the post-Amazon years.

It seemed pretty clear to me that Zappos was in decline as an independent entity. Fulfillment was already gone. They were in the middle of removing their product photography team. A section of their office was being used as a community co-working space. There were fun quirky office areas but completely devoid of employees. It wasn't clear if Zappos did anything beyond customer service. I don't know if Tony Hsieh could really call himself a CEO anymore under Amazon's thumb.

Zappos was really proud of their long weird onboarding process. They stress over and over their core values. You write and perform a skit about those core values to the company when you "graduate". At the end, if you don't think Zappos is the place for you, they'll pay you a few thousand dollars to leave. I'd imagine that people who aren't completely in love with the company would never go through this process.

[pb7]

Interviewed there for an internship way back. It's basically a cult. I was relieved to find out other companies to be expectedly normal after having Zappos be my introduction to the professional world.

[chiefalchemist]

> It wasn't clear if Zappos did anything beyond customer service.

But ultimately, isn't that what Zappos is? Their bread & butter? Footware is a commodity. Ecomm stores more or less a commodity. Fulfillment? The same.

The key point to being unique? Service. A lesson more ebusinesses wpuld be wise to learn.

[gowld]

Zappos was free returns.

[chiefalchemist]

The irony? Ppl then order more and are likely to keep more. Free returns is a means, not an ends.

[dexterdog]

Most people I know order 3 or more to try and keep the one they like returning the others. Not sure how you can compete on price when people are doing that.

[mdorazio]

Easy. Don't compete on price. Compete on long-term customer value.

[ashtonkem]

Customers will pay a premium if they think you’re going to take care of them.

That’s basically the business model of REI; they rarely have the best prices, but if something breaks they’ll make it right.

[ponker]

That's why Zappos doesn't compete on price, I've never seen a shoe there listed at anything but MSRP. I still buy all my shoes there because I'm very picky about fit, so I order several pairs, wear them around the house, and then pick what I'm keeping and send the rest back.

[nradov]

Some people can pretend to believe anything for a paycheck.

[ashtonkem]

There’s a fine line between trying to to welcome people to a new culture, and being creepy.

Personally I find the “we’re a family” attitude of a lot of these places deeply offputting; most families won’t lay off members when things get tough economically, so let’s stop pretending that we’re doing this for fun.

[specialist]

Others need some kind of beliefs to rationalize the modest paychecks.