Q&A: Zappos' Jane Judd on customer loyalty
Zappos has built up a reputation for excellent customer service, and owes much of its success to this. The fact that 75% of its business comes from repeat customers provides convincing evidence of its importance.
I've been asking Jane Judd, who is the senio manager of Zappos' Customer Loyalty Team, and was one of the keynote speakers at the recent Internet Retailing conference, about the company's approach...
Site review: javari.co.uk
Launched at the end of last week, javari.co.uk is Amazon's new standalone site selling footwear and handbags.
The online retail behemoth has been selling shoes on its main site for some time, but launched a dedicated site to attract more brands. I've been taking a closer look at the website...
Looking at the recently-launched $3m domain name, Candy.com
Is a generic, category-defining domain name worth millions of dollars? To some, it has been. The world was put on notice of that in 1999 when Business.com was bought for a then-record-breaking $7.5m.
Since that time, there have been plenty of seven-figure domain name sales. One of them came last month when Candy.com changed hands for $3m. The seller: Rick Schwartz, one of the best-known domainers. The buyer: G&J Holdings, run by confectionary executives (and cousins) Joe Melville and Greg Balestrieri.
Jeff Bezos on the Zappos deal, and four other videos
I once had the pleasure of meeting Amazon's Jeff Bezos, a man who is in some dictionaries the very definition of 'Enthusiasm' (with a capital E). He's pretty hard not to like.
So last night when I heard that Amazon had very discreetly negotiated a deal to buy customer-centric Zappos I felt that it was a great fit for both companies. I also happen to think that Amazon has the better deal, with Zappos going for less than one year's revenue (and about 95% of the $930m deal is to be paid in Amazon stock). But it's obviously fantastic for Tony and the rest of the Zappos team. Congratulations all round.
At any rate, Amazon's Jeff Bezos has been explaining why he bought Zappos in a video, in which he also explains "everything he knows" in a series of flipchart 'slides'.
Bezos riffs on customer obsession, something that he says Amazon shares with Zappos, which he says has a "unique culture". On Zappos: "I have a good feeling about how important that culture is to the Zappos brand, employees and customers."
Anyway, here's the video so you can see for yourself. I've added a few others for your viewing pleasure. Bezos FTW!
Z to A: Amazon.com gobbles up Zappos.com
Zappos.com, an internet retailer that launched in 1999, survived the
.com bust and went on to become the number one online footwear seller,
has been purchased by Amazon.com in a mostly-stock deal worth over
$900m.
Amazon plans to run Zappos as a wholly-owned subsidiary, with its new acquisition maintaining its own branding and separate operations.
15 enlightening ecommerce and online retail presentations
Ecommerce is one of the most mature markets online but that doesn't mean that it isn't a dynamic and fast-paced market in which participants need move quick to stay ahead of the curve.
Here are 15 enlightening presentations that can help you do just that.
Online companies are using offline advertising. Now they just need to measure it.
Offline advertising may be suffering right now, but that doesn’t
mean that online brands can’t still profit from it. According to AdWeek, online entities like Zappos, Amazon and Kayak are working with traditional agencies — and advertising — to fatten up their
profits. But the thing they still needs to get worked out is how to measure the effectiveness of cross-channel campaigns.
Trying to foster more brand awareness and utilize growing budgets, online companies are looking past search and display toward more traditional methods. Barry Lowenthal, president of The Media Kitchen here, a unit of MDC Partners' Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners, tells AdWeek that television ads bring "people into the fold that aren't already participating in the category or, if they are already participating in the category, might not be considering your brand. It's much higher up the purchase funnel.”
Tesco trials visual browsing application
Retail giant Tesco is set to make a few changes to its website this year; it has already launched an improved wine site and the grocery service is due to be relaunched this summer.
While the Tesco.com site is very functional, there are areas for improvement, and one of the things the retailer is trialling is a visual browsing feature for its beauty products; Beauty Room.
List of US retailers on Twitter
Generally speaking, US retailers seem to have adapted to Twitter more effectively than their UK counterparts, with some great examples of successful engagement with customers on the site.
Dell and Zappos are two firms that have often been given as examples, but there are plenty of others. For example, Threadless has managed to acquire an impressive 90,000 followers on Twitter by running competitions to design T-shirts.
I listed UK retailers on Twitter last week, and it was hard to get a list together, and many of the big names are missing. Creating a US list has been easier, but if I have missed any, let me know...
List of UK retailers on Twitter
Having looked at the use of Twitter by charities in the UK, and being impressed by number of organisations that have used it to promote their causes, I've decided to take a look at how many retailers are using the service.
There are some great examples of companies using Twitter in the US; Zappos has used it to communicate with customers and for marketing purposes, while Dell says it has made $1m in sales from using Twitter.
So how many UK retailers have signed up for a Twitter account?
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
