Entries tagged with “zappos” from O'Reilly Radar
Fri
Jul 24
2009
Amazon, Zappos and Buying What You Can’t Compete Against
by Joshua-Michéle Ross | @jmichele | comments: 0
Amazon bought Zappos. At first I was a bit surprised. Like an aging celebrity going to the “big theater in the sky” it is unexpected when you first hear about it - but upon reflection not surprising at all. It smacks of inevitability.
Amazon has consistently displayed a genius for pushing the boundaries of their business - for syndicating their strengths and making them a commodity for others to purchase. Are they a bookseller, an ecommerce platform, a cloud service provider, a consumer electronics company etc.?
Along the way Zappos has shown the same genius - taking Amazon’s competence syndication strategy one step further. When they launched Powered by Zappos they allowed smaller merchants to overlay their brand on top of the entire Zappos supply chain and, more importantly, on top of Zappos’ legendary customer service. Zappos was syndicating the entire experience.
Much of the online conversation is taken up with worries that Amazon will not abide Zappos’ culture. I feel quite the opposite. I believe culture is exactly what Jeff Bezos and Amazon were buying (after all it likely wasn’t fulfillment centers, logistics, inventory or even customers). Culture is the one asset Amazon couldn’t compete against.
It was a smart move.
tags: amazon, experience syndication, zappos
| comments: 0
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Sun
Dec 21
2008
Zappos: If You Are Great at Something - Let It Go...
(Or Resell It)
by Joshua-Michéle Ross
| @jmichele
| comments: 6
I am fascinated by what I see as Zappos' ongoing evolution from a simple, online retailer to a leading online innovator. A few months back I wrote about Zappos pioneering what I called “Experience Syndication" with their Powered by Zappos (PBZ) service. In brief, PBZ syndicates the end-to-end value of shopping with Zappos - from the online store experience to shipping, to returns, to the call center - everything. Clarks Shoes, Stuart Weitzman and many other online sites are providing a customer experience entirely syndicated by Zappos.
Last night I saw CEO Tony Hsieh’s tweet about Zappos Insights - a paid membership site “that allows 'Fortune one million' companies to gain insights from the learnings of Zappos.com. The site will allow access to Zappos.com management and contacts and provide guidance and direct answers for user generated questions via video responses.”
If PBZ syndicates the customer experience, Zappos Insights is syndicating the internal business experience; providing a window into the leadership and culture that has made Zappos such a successful business. What is so radical about this is the notion that Zappos is willing to let go of the very thing that makes them so exceptional.
What other company would you like to see create a similar service?
tags: strategy, zappos
| comments: 6
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