STORES Magazine - October 2008 - (Page S13)

The goal, obviously, is to turn the verticals into destination sites, and thus position Zappos as the hub of an online community. The verticals each have a blog that contains both internally-generated and paid content. The blogs allow for customer comments (product reviews are a big area for this), are heavily used and provide significant search engine optimization for the primary site. Another online customer channel is Facebook. “We see this as a big area for us to reach out to,” Cromley said. “We can leverage a large existing community and build a Facebook fan base around Zappos.” There are Zappos-related Facebook applications (shopping and non-shopping), as well as cross-linking between Zappos and Facebook: A shopper can methodical approach to managing its “We can leverage send Facebook friends a “what do channels. The main sales channel (it cura large existing you think of these shoes” message rently accounts for 95 percent of overall directly from the Zappos site. volume) is zappos.com, on which Zappos community and Zappos also makes extensive use maintains its highest level of customer build a Facebook of Twitter, an instant-messaging service while holding a firm line on pricing fan base around community. A Twitter microblog (Products are not marked down more than Zappos.” enables Zappos customers and 10 percent). employees to communicate with and A discount site, 6pm.com, was acquired about one another in brief (140 charin late 2007. Here the discounts can be acters or less) text messages. Customers use Twitter deep — up to 75 percent — and the rules are different. to let Zappos know that they’ve gotten their shoes, that Customers on 6pm.com pay for their own shipping and the website is being sluggish (Zappos now publishes returns, and they have a 30-day window for returns. its downtime and maintenance schedule on the Twitter Zappos maintains a clear distinction between the channetwork), that there are new products they’d like to see nels: Nowhere on 6pm.com is there any mention of the and so on. Zappos.com brand. Other vehicles include Zappos Couture, which sells shoes by designers like Marc Jacobs, Dolce & GabNext steps bana, and Kate Spade, and the “powered by Zappos” Over the next six months, Zappos plans a major sites, for which Zappos handles hosting, sales, cuspush around social networking, which is intended to tomer service and fulfillment for suppliers (Clarks, Stuemulate some of the more pleasurable aspects of art Weitzman and Taryn Rose) that don’t want to build shopping with a friend. Among the features will be the IT infrastructure they’d need to do it themselves. dress-a-friend (picking outfits for your friends) and wardrobe builder (picking outfits for yourself), both of which should make it easier to buy shoes and clothes Community building on line. The Zappos branding does appear on the company’s “We think online retailing is in its infancy,” Cromley vertical channels — currently outdoor, running and said. “We know how we reach and sell to our cus“rideshop,” which carries footwear, apparel and other tomers at the moment, but we don’t know what it will be items aimed at the skateboard, surfboard and snowlike in five or 10 years. We need to explore these chanboard demographic. These sites aggregate selected nels now so we can be familiar with them, and also so products from the overall Zappos inventory and we’ll have the background we’ll need to deal with whatarrange and display them in ways designed to appeal ever comes next. to their particular customer base. In addition, they carry “At the moment, less than 5 percent of our business a fair amount of non-product information. In 2007, for comes in through the blogs and the other alternative example, Zappos sponsored the Las Vegas Marathon, channels. However, those buyers are our youngest and running.zappos.com hosted training tips and race customers; they’re the customer base of the future.” results. WWW.STORES.ORG STORES / OCTOBER 2008 S13 http://www.zappos.com http://www.6pm.com http://www.6pm.com http://www.6pm.com http://www.Zappos.com http://running.zappos.com http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - October 2008

STORES Magazine - October 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Force of a Different Collar What Shoppers Think Bagging the Competition 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Favorite 50 Sticky Strategies for Retention Concept2Watch Kiosks Online Business Intelligence RFID NRFtech Wrap-up E-Commerce Credit Warehouse Systems Logistics Selling Tools Supply Chain LOEB Retail Letter Arts Update Point of View NRF News Retail Crossword Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

STORES Magazine - October 2008

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