Essay on Zappos: Competition Strategy

Guest loyalty, developing employees, expansion, and increased sales are the corporate vision that Zaxby’s has used to grow and develop its brand.

Wal-Mart is a brand that is well known around the world, especially in the USA. It has gradually developed into the largest retailer in the world. Wal-Mart’s globalization efforts have been happening rapidly. But have they been successful in all aspects of their international expansion or not? This is the main thought that is going to be discussed in this essay. The questions I will be looking at are based on a case called “Wal-Mart takes on the world” from the book of International Business The Challenge of Global Competition eleventh edition – Ball, McCulloch, Geringer, Minor, and McNett. Questions are the following:

Zappos is an online shoes retailer that started its business in the year 1999. Later on the company had expanded its business to include the beauty products, clothing and even the housewares within its leading e-commerce website. This case emphasizes on the customer service department of Zappos Company and initially the business focused only on the drop ship method. Later on the company also increased the variety of the products. The company had also created a bricks and mortar storefront to expand the business and increase the sales of the business.

In This case we see the typical problem which affect big Companies : the conflict between old style and new school of thought. We analyze Zara’s information Technology strategies and the diatribe between Salgado, The Head of the Department and Sanchez , his assistant,s concern upgrading the operating system and the implementation of a new IT system to fulfill the needs of a fast growing retail chain. Despite the fact that Zara is over performing in their core business and that they are not showing big problems inside their structure, this shouldn’t be seen as a pretense to dodge updating the Software. Here we

They are more like a big family. At Zappos there are lots of fun activities to get the employees involved, like face painting, wacky parades, and gaming in the lounge on breaks. Employees have the freedom to dress causal and comfortable. The company ensures customer loyalty by closely training and mentoring their team, and at the end of training they offer their employees $3,000 to leave (most of whom do not except the offer after weighing the options). Besides their fun and supportive environment, Zappos offers their employees full health care benefits, free meals, and competitive salaries. Lastly, while many other companies have call centers located outside of the country, (in order to save money) Zappos call center is located in Loss Vegas. Phone calls are not timed or scripted, which gives the employees a chance to interact with the customers on a more personal

Zappos has made the online shopping experience very safe and easy. The marketing strategy used by Zappos has to be one of the best one in any market. Zappos took was given to them and turn the focus to the customer experience. The entire idea was to make the shopping experience better so that customers would return. The promotion of a fun and hip culture for the employees is a big reason this strategy is working. Employees are in good moods and so this passes on the customer. The Zappos atmosphere is fun. There are no sales goals for employee because Zappos wants the relationship between the employee and customer to be genuine.

Founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn, Zappos.com, initially named ShoeSite.com, has grown from an inventory-less, “drop-ship” shoe sales website that connected customer orders with shoe suppliers to an Internet shoe mega-retailer that recorded a reported $2.1 billion in revenue in

However, by employing the right people, Zappos can shun or reduce the consequences of levering to a self-governing organization, creating a different application route to rule out applicants who are not well-suited with the Holarctic system, would be the idyllic

He started to invest in Zappos which the concept came from Fred. Zappos was also faced with many issues all the time and they tried to eliminate the issues that Tony talks in Chapter 3. Also, he explains the relationship between the poker game and the business strategies. Although, Zappos was growing, they also confronted with the recession, the dot-com stock market crash, and 9/11. Tony solved the issues by selling his properties. He had recovered the business to have a good revenue again. It was a stressful period that Tony talks in Chapter 4. However, Zappos was still doing well. He backed to focus at customer service. Also, Zappos had used the Brand, Culture, Pipeline strategies for managing the organization in the long-term that he describes in Chapter 5. Tony had learned many mistakes from the past and continued developing the services and the stories. Nevertheless, Zappos sold to Amazon in 2009. Tony details the reason why he walks out the board in Chapter 6. In the last chapter, Tony asks the reader about the goal in life. He also summary the details about Zappos is about delivering happiness to the

The threat of new entrants into the online shoe/apparel market is relatively small due to the fact that Zappos is such an established brand and has specialized their business model. It would be far too expensive for a new company to copy the characteristics of Zappos including their next day delivery and large overhead. The fact that Zappos was losing money initially illustrates this difficulty. Another issue that would create a high barrier to entry is Zappos commitment to the consumer through overnight shipping. Zappos stated that the overnight shipping caused them to leave their warehouses open for the entire day. Any other company would

The recognized giants in today’s discount retail market are Wal-Mart, Sears, Roebuck and Company, and Target, and this paper compares Wal-Mart and Target. As the competition stiffens to capture market niches, these two organizations are heading for a showdown. This work demonstrates distinctive differences in company culture, promotion within the organization, lofty goal setting, and leadership styles between these two organizations. Although this paper shows a definite competitive advantage for the Wal-Mart organization, it will also demonstrate that Target

1. One of the requirements to successfully apply as a Zappos employee is to be happy. The company hires only happy people, after which the company expends significant effort to maintain this sense of happiness. The philosophy behind this is that customers will be happy when being served by happy employees. This is why the company strives to create a company culture that inspires its employees and promotes their sense of well-being.

Zappos started out by selling shoes online to become the world’s largest online retailer of shoes. Subsequently, in their quest to boost sales, they moved beyond footwear to become an E-tailer that sells ‘anything and everything’.

Zappos employees truly believe that above all else, the secret to customer loyalty is making corporate culture a priority which is directly driven from their Human Resource management.

Zappos has successfully shaped a one-of-a-kind culture to which it owes its success. While there is not a true “problem” with Zappos.com; the company realizes significant growth potential. Sister company, Amazon.com, recognizing the asset of the renowned customer service Zappos has formed, has approached the Zappos management team with discussions of a potential acquisition.