Consumers
Zappos decided to invest in customer relationship, which made customers happy, interactive and loyal to the company. They believe that the hardest part of doing business is not getting someone to buy from them once but rather make them come back several times. Employees were expected to go above and beyond and put the Zappos brand on full display with every interaction. Some of the key investments Zappos made to ensure customer satisfaction were quick loading times of the website, quick wait time for phone inquiries, pleasing and talking to the customer about anything, hassle-free returns and so on.
Competitors
The competition was fairly tough and consisted of traditional brick and mortar shops, which brought several advantages to consumers (and thus concerns for Zappos) such as being able to get assistance from sales representatives, trying out shoes and taking them back home instantly. Moreover, online sales were still a fairly new concept and many companies weren’t able to get proper funding because the internet still wasn’t considered to be an established channel for business.
However, Zappos managed to overcome these obstacles by implementing a lenient return process which turned out to be a great idea because customers who frequently returned shoes were also the ones who placed the most overall orders. They also took care of uploading high quality photos from multiple angles and provided in-depth descriptions as well as customer feedback. Lastly, they offered free overnight shipping on most orders.
Suppliers
Zappos plays the role of a middleman between shoe manufacturers and the consumers. Initially, it was hard to attract brands for a partnership because Internet was still a new environment for business and brick and mortar stores pressured brands not to shift sales online. Over time, consumers became comfortable with online shopping and many brands become interested in building partnerships because they realized they were missing a...