Zappos.Com: Focus on Customer Service

1n 1999, Nick Swinmurn (Swinmurn), who was working as a webmaster for Silicon Graphics , was disappointed and frustrated when he could not find a pair of Vans shoes in the style, color, and size that he was looking for, while out shopping at a mall in San Francisco...

According to Swinmurn and Hsieh, the Zappos website was originally conceived as a site that offered a large selection of shoes in terms of brands, styles, colors, sizes, and widths. However, they discovered soon enough that providing a large selection was not easy, as most shoe manufacturers were reluctant to work with a small company that sold shoes online, due in part to concerns about the effect of such an association on their brand image...

Zappos also connected with its customers through social media like blogs and social networking sites. It was also one of the first companies in the US to use social media extensively for this purpose...

In 2002, Hsieh shifted Zappos's order fulfillment operations from a 30,000-square foot warehouse in California to a 280,000-square foot warehouse in Kentucky. In addition to increasing the space available, the shift was done to ensure faster delivery...