Zappos

Author: Kalicia Bateman

Zappos

Zappos came into being when the founder saw a pair of Airwalks on sale. This helped the founder generate the idea of selling items online way back in 1999. Zappos had a fantastic year in 2000, when it brought in $1.6 million in revenue after stagnating in 1999. Zappos has expanded to include shoes, online clothing, and other products that are found in traditional "big box" clothing stores.

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The Good

• Low prices on clothing
• Outstanding shipping and return policies

Zappos has disrupted the online clothing and shopping industry. Three specific areas where they deliver excellence is:

Low Prices on Clothing

Zappos has become a popular destination for clothing shoppers in search of the best prices. Not only are they providing some of the lowest prices available online, many of the items of clothing are from some of the most popular brands in the industry. Not only are their prices on these popular products very low, they have a large selection of clothing items to choose from. Especially concerning shoes, a customer can purchase name brand boots, shoes, and other footwear. Customers can purchase kids clothes and shoes in both girls and boys styles. This is something that isn't in every online clothing store.

Outstanding Shipping and Return Policies

There is a no-hassle shipping and returns policy from Zappos which has been a game-changer in the online shopping world. All shipping and returns are free. If a customer is not happy with a product, they can return it with the easy-to-use self-service return system. You have a year to decide whether or not you want to keep the product. This is a huge time difference when compared to other average return policies that last 30 to 60 days. All merchandise, not defective, must be returned in the same condition it was received.

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The Bad

• Potentially cluttered online catalog

It is a challenge to find things wrong with Zappos and their online clothing store. However, a few things could be improved slightly to increase the online shopping experience:

Potentially Cluttered Online Catalog

Zappos online catalog itself leaves one's shopping experience wanting, but only slightly. It is difficult to see all the items available (men's pants had 13 pages of items to view). This is a slight negative consequence to having so many quality products for different customer types. The search tool, however, helps remedy this. You are able to type in brands or clothing types that you are searching for to speed up your shopping experience. Most of the categories also have filters found on the left-hand side of the page to help speed up the shopping process as well. Also, it is a little bit cumbersome to try and trace the price of products initially. You can sort by price with the search tool, but it is relatively challenging to find a nice, mid-priced item that is currently on sale. Although it is a relative challenge to find these types of products quickly, there are countless items that meet these and other criteria to ultimately choose from.

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The Bottom Line

We recommend Zappos. We felt like they were the best in the online clothing industry when it came to customer service. We also found that Zappos focuses exclusively on customer service. Zappos takes over 5000 service calls a month and even responds to 1200 emails a week. This amount of customer service is unparalleled in the online clothing industry. We hope that Zappos and their great customer service trend continues with their acquisition by Amazon.