Zappos showed shoes can sell online
During the dot-com bubble of 1999, I would have put a tiny, online seller of shoes into the same category with Pets.com, Babytoys.com (or whatever) and all the other soon-to-be dead online merchants. I would have been wrong.
Shoes are hard to fit and hard to buy over the Web. They seemed to be one of those "high-touch" products that you have to see in person to buy. The solution that Zappos hit upon -- free shipping for both orders and returns -- figured to wipe out profits. It didn't. Now Amazon is buying Zappos for $800 million.
Helping Zappos (and Amazon), of course, is the ability to avoid charging most customers for state sale taxes. This gives it an unfair advantage over bricks/mortar stores that fuel local economies. I wonder how competitive Zappos would be if it had to operate under the same rules as Macy's or Payless Shoe Source.
Comments
While the state sales tax situation may have something to do with Zappos success, the other big advantage they have is selection. They simply have more styles and more sizes than any bricks/mortars could ever hope to stock.
Posted by: Gregory | July 23, 2009 5:27 PM
Amen to that, Gregory. It's not the lack of sales tax that makes me shop online--it's selection and convenience. Selection is the same thing that gives Amazon the advantage of going to my local Borders or Barnes & Noble: I can always get the edition or translation of whatever book I'm looking for. Plus I don't have to be depressed by the sales staff.
Posted by: Laura | July 24, 2009 4:24 PM
thats cool!
Posted by: ken | August 9, 2009 2:35 PM