... Term Paper Zappos by Daniel Silberberg – ID 329655716 Lior Stern – ID 201263910 Nimrod Stern – ID 302328992 February 23rd, 2014 Lecturer: Dr. Galit Dayan TA: Einat Brainin Organizational Behavior Part A. Introduction 1. We chose Zappos.com, an innovative and adaptive online shoe and clothing shop, due to its unique positive company culture, sky-high employee satisfaction and fascinating CEO, Tony Hsieh. Zappos is an organization that has committed itself to a fun, inspired and qualitative culture. The company CEO genuinely believes in delivering happiness to all employees, and working in an gratifying office environment. Tony Hsieh has built a remarkable reputation for himself by being an inventive leader unafraid to equip his staff with responsibility and control. 2. Zappos is one of the largest online shoe and clothing shops. Zappos offers approximately 50,000 types of shoes, providing a large variety of brands, sizes and colors. Their inventory also includes clothes, watches and kids’ merchandise. The concept is simple; it is a traditional eCommerce corporation. Orders are made online and transferred to their warehouse in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. The products are then packed and the order is updated with a tracking number and shipped to the customer. Zappos is especially known for their generous shipping policies. Indeed, the shipping and return costs are free, with a return policy of 365 days for every product. Zappos works closely with...
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...Introduction Zappos, one of the biggest online sales inventories, has been through some dramatic changes over the years. It is not only matching the other competitors’ growths but also exceeding their potentials. Even Zappos has been expending, it did not change the core value of the company. In fact, the company’s philosophy is the fundamental factor of Zappos success, and such culture is hard to change because it was already taken-forgranted. This analysis study will take a deeper look at Zappo’s company culture and discuss how this culture influenced its employees to maximize the productivity. Helping “Newbies” Socialize Into the Culture Zappos has very special values and norms that control the whole organizational members’ interactions with each member inside and also with the customers outside the company. Those guiding principles including terminal and instrumental values were applied during selecting people who wanted to get into the organization. The best candidates for positions at Zappos are the “weird” ones because Zappos believes that the weird ones are the adventurous, creative, and open-minded people. The characteristics of those people within the organization made one of the cores of the company’s culture. This is the energy that drives the company. Within the organizational structure, Zappos is also looking for team players, and they encourage employees to make friends at work (the instrumental value) because having friends at work makes employees happy and happy...
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...MGMT345 Operations Management Zappos Case Study 1. Draw and describe the customer benefit package that Zappos provides. The customer benefit package the Zappos Company provides to their customers is the “Wow Delivery Service” this type of customer service adds taste to consumer satisfaction, particularly when it comes to buying Zappos products online ( Buur, J., T. Binder, et al. 2000). Delivery service was designed to ensure that consumer purchases were appreciated. One service that Zappos provides to increase its business worth is free shipping in both directions for all their purchases, and they often give customers free upgrade surprises, and the company offers customers a 360 day return policy. $44.95 Converse Jeans All Star Core Jeans $49.99 Nike Roshe Run $70.00 $70.00 UGG Classic Short $155.00 Women $49.00 All Star Identify and describe one primary value creation, one support, and one general management process you might encounter at Zappos. Shopping at Zappos, consumers may experience value creation, for instance, one customer stated “I have gotten several pairs of Livie & Luca shoes for my son (three years old) in the past Two years (he was an early walker) and they never disappoint.” The company has been in an online business for a short while, but online customer support has increased each year. The one general management process you might encounter at Zappos is personal service from team members...
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...inventory and fulfill orders. However, with fulfillment out of their hands, they were faced with problems of control over service quality and began to hold inventory while suppliers became more comfortable with the idea of online retail. They continued to adapt this internal fulfillment model. By 2003, all shipments were made from their own inventory. Additionally, their inventory management system has developed into an extremely automated process, allowing them to more easily scale the company up to the size it is today (showing 2,851,610 products available for shipment on November 25, 2008). As online retail has matured, it has become clear that Zappos has superior quality and efficiency in the industry and many companies have begun to use Zappos as a primary method of fulfilling online retail orders. The operations are still the same; Zappos purchases shipments of shoes from the manufacturer, takes orders via the web, and ships...
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...Discuss the concept of motivation and Zappos You will use your Group Discussion Board to conduct your analysis of this case study. Discuss the approach used by Zappos. Why is the approach not used very often? What are the challenges and the benefits? Zappos was acquired by Amazon in 2009. What organizational changes do you believe occurred due to the acquisition and would continue to occur over time? Discuss the concept of motivation and Zappos. Would Zappos be a motivating place to work? Why? Why not? Your analysis must include supporting evidence. Motivation is defined as “the desire to achieve a goal or a certain performance level, leading to goal-directed behavior (Erdogan; Chapter 5, P.1 paragraph).” Motivation can mean a lot such as a company trying to accomplish a set goal, or a soldier trying to complete a physical fitness test, in some type of form a person is trying to reach an obtainable goal. Motivation and Zappos is another thing, they encourage employees to be, themselves, just be to be regular people. The concept of support goes further in at zappos than just in its core values, it goes into its Performance, such as no time table on customer service calls, the point of that is to make the customer feel very important and to build a relationship with the customer, and also other motivating effects could be a compressed workweek, and a nice benefits package, which offers full healthcare coverage. Motivation has a lot to do with this organization, in creating...
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...Son site d'e-commerce, Zappos, numéro un mondial des ventes de chaussures en ligne, basé à Las Vegas, réalise 1 milliard de dollars de ventes par an. Avec des chaussures mais aussi des vêtements, des sacs, des accessoires... Diplômé de Harvard, Tony Hsieh est un passionné de culture client et de... poker ! Ce petit génie américain du business a revendu sa première société, LinkExchange, à Microsoft à l'âge de 24 ans pour 265 millions de dollars ! En 2005, il investit à titre personnel dans Zappos et en devient manager. Quatre ans plus tard, Amazon rachète Zappos pour la coquette somme de 1,2 milliard de dollars. Tony Hsieh (prononcez Shay) en reste le président. Au Top 100 des entreprises où il fait bon travailler Zappos est régulièrement classée dans le Top 100 des meilleures entreprises où il fait bon travailler. Si le bonheur de ses collaborateurs lui tient tant à coeur, c'est qu'il fait sa fortune ! Il y a quelques mois, il a publié un livre de management, Delivering Happiness (éd. Business Plus), pour raconter comment Zappos a su conjuguer profits et bonheur des clients et des salariés. Un best-seller pendant six mois sur les listes du New York Times ou du Wall Street Journal et un exemple de la singularitéde Zappos. La société est l'un des rares sites d'e-commerce au monde dont le centre d'appel basé aux Etats-Unis, "trop important pour être expédié en Inde", ne "flique" pas ses salariés. "Chez Zappos, écrit Tony Hsieh, nous disons que nous délivrons du bonheur...
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...the product. It helps the site to only let the users to do shopping. Zappos.com was established in the year 1999 and till now it’s successfully crossing the ladders of admiration among the youngsters. The website does not only contain shopping for products, but it also provides detail on the product, in shape of catalogs and pictures. The site is integrated with 385 different companies which have further classified according to their products and supplies. That is the reason that it makes Zappos.com the hottest website for all youngsters because it possess a wide range of products in various generics. The site is completing its thirteen successive years[1]. Zappos.com is an online shoe and apparel shop currently based in Henderson, Nevada. Zappos was founded by Nick Swinmurn in 1999. The initial inspiration came when he couldn’t 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 US is a 40 billion dollar market and 5% of that is already being sold by paper mail order catalogs," Hsieh and Lin decided to...
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...vision, mission and goals is the key to achieving the goals of that strategy. In my opinion Zappos has done a good job in many areas of their strategic planning; they have used their balanced scorecard approach to strategically align themselves in an advantageous position in line with Porter’s Five Forces theory. They were the first to offer their products in the differentiated approach that they have taken, “A Service Company that sells shoes.” Their main goal is to “WOW the customer” and all others that they happen to have relationships with, including suppliers and everyone else in their supply chain, by providing excellent service. Their Competitive Advantage is their company culture and core company values. Employee satisfaction and enthusiasm is key to their culture and they go above and beyond to ensure that taking care of their employees, and making sure that a fun, family atmosphere is maintained in order to have happy employees, with freedom and autonomy, to then be able to ensure that they will in turn make happy customers. They have made suppliers their allies instead of thinking of them as the competition. They have vertically aligned themselves with other websites to alleviate some of the worry of competition as well as positioned themselves to offer their “powered by Zappos” service in order to work with competitors and gain revenue from them. Below I have listed Zappos’ key success factors, as at 2008. The accompanying map of strengths, categorized into the...
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...Zappos Case Study Amber Jennings May 05, 2016 OAD 31863: Principles of Marketing Ottawa University Zappos Case Study Who does not love shopping? Better yet who does not love shopping while sitting at home? Online shopping is a growing trend that has made shopping easy to do from the convenience of your home. Zappos is an online shoe and clothing shop based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It has grown tremendously over the past 17 years and leaves customers striving for more on a daily basis. The unique customer service emphasis offered by Zappos keeps customers coming back for more. Timeline of Zappos * 1999- Zappos was founded by Nick Swinmurn * 2004- Gross sales of Zappos doubles to more than $184 million * 2006- Nick Swinmurn leaves Zappos * 2007- Zappos expand its product categories to include eyewear, handbags, clothing, watches, and kid’s merchandise * 2008- Gross sales at Zappos hit $1 million * 2009- Sold to Amazon.com for $1.2 billion (Zappos, 2016) Market Offering Zappos is one of the few companies that offer free shipping, 365-day return policy, and 24/7 customer service. Zappos offers many different popular brands of shoes, clothing, and handbags. While Zappos is not always the cheapest retail store the service makes up for the price difference. The main target customer of Zappos would be an online shopper. Zappos strives for the best customer experience and do whatever they can for customers to get the best out their shopping experience...
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...later rechristened as Zappos. Hsieh and Lin, the founders of Venture Frogs, funded Zappos; later the pair assumed leadership positions in the firm. Throughout the 2000s, Zappos grew tremendously, thanks to its undiluted focus on the three C's – clothing, customer service, and company culture. Some of the key issues facing Zappos are high return rates, strain on the supply chain (reverse logistics), and expansion strategies. ANALYSIS One of Zappos’ core strengths is its culture. The firm places great emphasis on recruiting not only the best and the brightest, but also those who fit the culture. Workforce is the most important asset of any firm; Zappos scores here. Zappos recruits only “happy” individuals, puts them through a series of paid training programs, weeding out uncommitted individuals, and empowers its employees by letting them be creative and imaginative. Furthermore, employees are authorized to go to any extent to satisfy the needs of the customer. The firm’s undiluted focus on the three C's- clothing, customer service, and culture – is probably the most important reason for its tremendous growth and success. Given the focus of Zappos, these competitive advantages are sustainable. Online retailing has traditionally been about cutting prices; this is a zero sum game, in which the value is captured by the consumers and not by the players. Zappos’ strategy is to focus on customer service. Given the limited interaction with online shopping, Zappos’ positioning strategy...
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...Zappos Zappo’s organizational mission starts with core beliefs. These beliefs not only bind the organization together, they serve as the culture to which Zappos hires and fires with. Many companies in business today claim their organization lives the mission written. When the times come to actually apply the mission to daily business and human resource decisions they fall short of the claim. 'Zappos places great emphasis on company culture and core values. Hsieh's belief is that "if we get the culture right, then everything else, including the customer service, will fall into place."' () Similar to many organizations in the 21st century, Zappos is an example of an open system. First, Zappos utilizes inputs which are one of the three categories of the open system model of business. Zappos utilizes capital, labor, purchasing and marketing information. Within the organization, the technical subsystem develops and maintains the software and internet based online store. As a medium between the raw merchandise and the customers, the boundary-spanning subsystem purchases, markets, and performs logistics decision all behind the scenes of the website. Holding the organization together and facilitating the cohesion of the technical and boundary subsystem, the management subsystem of Zappos lies. Last, the final output is shoes and apparel in the hands of the customer. Goods and services are turned to profit which finalize this open-system organization...
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...MESUT KABAER 9501123507 1) SWOT analysis for Zappos Strenghts • Free shipping (Very important issue for returns, selling shoes online is tough job to do and i think this what makes them sucesseful beacuse the shoe size would be a big concern when buying them online but if customers can order many shoe size and colours and return them as they like, this is a great example of competetive advantage over other online retail business) • Customer focused business model (Long term customer relationships providing great service and happiness to customer which leads to make customer re-purchase) • Customer service ( in call center they see this as an opportunity to make the customer happy so they want people to call them to establish personel, emotional connections with the customers to serve best way and provide great service) • Strong corporate culture and work environment ( talented people and employees enjoy their work, great service and brand power, relaxed and wacky atmosphere such as nap room, wellness center, open mic, open door policy to management etc) • Unique hiring and training process (hiring right people for the job, five week training program through out the whole line of business, 200 hours of clasees) • Benefits ( benifts that it provides to its employees such as entensive health plan, medical benefits dental, visioni and life insurance, flexible spending account, pre-paid legal services, free lunches and snacks, life coaching, car pool program etc.) • Work-Life...
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...1. What is the business of Zappos and what are its critical success factors (CSF’s)? [lists] Business of Zappos: Zappos is an online shoe store, providing customers with a great number of sizes, styles and brands. What Zappos applies is the Loyalty business model, which reflected in two ways. a. The loyalty of Zappos employees: the firm proposed “the offer” as a bonus to employees if they quit, which is an incentive for employees to quit. However, the employees that stay will be very committed to Zappos. b. The loyalty of Zappos’ customers: the services that Zappos offers to its customers are very attractive and beneficial to customers. For example, free delivers, 4-day delivery window and a 365-day return guarantee. All these services help Zappos gain more loyal customers. Their revenues are mostly come from its repeat customers. Critical Success: a. Timeliness of shipment: because as the business of Zappos grew, Zappos was confronted with the issues that their customers’ orders can’t be shipped on time. So Zappos opened its own warehouse and fulfillment centers, and of course hiring more employees to satisfy this high demand. Therefore, by implementing this set of actions, Zappos can offer the best selection of shoes available everywhere online. b. Training of employees: new employees must complete an intensive four-week training program, which let them better understand the company’s culture, business strategy and process. By training them, employees...
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...Nick Swinmurn founded the online shoe retailer Zappos.com. Zappos was created when Swinmurn was walking around in a San Francisco mall looking for a pair of shoes. One store had the right style, but not the right color another store had the right color but not the right size. Nick left the mall empty-handed and frustrated. Nick decided to quit his day job and start an online shoe retailer, and Zappos began (Zappos.com). Additional investment became necessary for the success of the business after it was already started. Swinmurn teamed up with investor Tony Hsieh, later naming him the CEO of Zappos. Zappos’ started making money after committing its business to customer service. Swinmurn and Hsieh built a successful company with a new culture. This new culture has been preserved by Zappos’ new owner, Amazon.com, which acquired Zappos in a $1.2 billion deal. Zappos’vision states one day at 30% of all retail transaction in the U.S. will be online, people will buy from that company with the best service and best selection, and Zappos.com will be that online store (Zappos.com). This paper will examine the culture of Zappos.com, determine how Zappos showed the signs of culture, the factors that demonstrated the culture, the type of leader that would be best suited for the company culture, and the culture change needed to if there was a decline in the sales. Zappos’ has branded their culture as the value of happiness. Zappos’ provides happiness to happy employees and happy customers...
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...The right fit at Zappos (Priya de Langen. 05 Jan 2012) Not many companies can boast that they get tour visits to their offices, but Zappos Family of Companies can. The US online shoe retailer receives as many as 2,000 curious visitors per month at its warehouse and offices and rumour has it that some of these onlookers include celebrities and record producers. Founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn, the Zappos Family has come a long way from its humble beginnings to becoming a well-known name among American consumers. It all began with Swinmurn unsuccessfully trying to find a pair of shoes for himself, even online. The desire to find the right pair eventually led him to start an online shoe business, Zappos.com. By 2009, the organisation had grown and joined global online retailer, Amazon.com Inc. and last year the organisation was restructured into 10 companies under the Zappos Family of Companies unit. Zappos Family is fast gaining a reputation not only for having great customer service but particularly for being a good employer. Fitting into Zappos’ shoes Earning a reputation as a good employer is no mean feat and the organisation’s quirky and open culture has helped to achieve this. This culture took some time to develop but it has now become a part of everyday work practices for all Zappos Family employees. Hollie Delaney, director of HR at Zappos.com. says that the organisation needed to define itself and the people who would work for it, and this definition came in the...
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