I am writing this memo to perform an
online audit of the Zappos.com. In this report, I was able to determine and
analyze what kind of online presences Zappos.com currently have, who the major
influencers are and what feasible recommendations could apply to Zappos.com. I
chose this company because I have curiosity to dig out the secret of Zappos’
success and how they can become the leading online shoes retailer empire. It is
a great opportunity to learn how Zappos successful develop online marketing tools
and engage with their customers. Please let me know if this memo meets your
expectations. I am looking forward to your recommendations and feedback.
Company Background
Zappos.com is the most popular
and largest online shoes and apparel retail store based in Henderson, Nevade. It
was founded in 1991 by Tony Hsieh and Nick Swinmun. Zappos.com is premier
selling various selections of branded shoes, growing ranges of accessories, and
clothing. Beside the tangible products, Zappos.com is famous for its loyalty
business model and relationship marketing. What makes Zappos.com competitive
and distinctive is their excellent customer service in the industry; they
promote three benefits to customers, free shipping both ways, a 365-day return
policy without extra shipping and restocking fees and a 24/7 call center.
Official Website
Zappos has put a lot of efforts
in designing, optimizing and managing their official website in term of being
accessible and easy to navigate for customers. At the top of their website, it
has a search engine to allow customers to find their products in a second. On
the menu bar, the website list all different categories from shoes to
accessories. It also presents the popular shopping items as recommendations and
customers testimonials about their products (Zappos, 2013).
From my perspective, although
Zappos.com positions their unique selling point which is their extraordinary
customer service in the entire website, I found that Zappos still has
traditional online shopping website pattern. Their website is too informative
to distract my attention. It is important for Zappos.com to distinguish themselves
of the website between eBay, Amazon and other online shopping stores.
Facebook
Zappos.com uses their Facebook
page to update with the latest news, photos and products. They currently have
over 420,747 likes and over 6373 people are talking about them, as well as hundreds
of other likes for their individual posts (Facebook, 2013). What astonished me
the most is that they actually respond every single customer’s comment promptly
on Facebook. Zappos.com presents an image of outstanding customer service at
anytime and anywhere.
The second most surprising
thing I found is that Zappos was one of the earliest companies creating its
Facebook page in 2004 when Facebook was just established. It is a company that is
able to seize the trends of social media beyond other competitors. Additionally,
Zappos has put a lot of efforts on their Facebook page. Their theme, image,
branding and message coincide with website, blogs, and other online presences.
Twitter
Zappos initially encourages 500
employees to use twitter as a daily and causal communication approach instead
of promoting and marketing. Tony Hsieh commented that it was a great way to
help build their company culture, as well as connecting with customers. Tony
Hsieh-the CEO of Zappos.com is one of the most followed persons on Twitter with
2.67 million followers (Hsieh, 2012). There are several twitter accounts from
Zappos to function differently, such as Zappos customer service, Zappos
Stylists, Zappos Insights and so on.
Unlike other companies on
Twitter, all of the Zappos.com twitter accounts deliver a joyful company
culture, present employees’ own personality and communicate with customers and
followers. On the other hand, the company did a great job at responding to direct
tweets and replying every customer’s positive or negative comments.
Blogs
Zappos.com has various blogs
online, such as Zappos Family, CEO and COO Blog, Inside Zappos. Zappos’ blogs,
updated frequently, focus on fashion trends which may appeal customers’
eyeballs, some top-picked products, and introduce the new brands and products (Hsieh,
2009). The message and photos on blogs are consistent on their Facebook page
and Twitter. After I read many their blogs, I found that their posts were more
female-oriented, because women are their major customer base. By posting those
fashion trends blogs, Zappos.com has a desire to position their company as a
fashion hub.
The only issue I found is that
there are limited numbers of people to comment on blogs or even share to customers’
own Facebook. The reason of this problem is that Zappos only allow the users
who have Zappos accounts or Amazon accounts to comment on their blogs.
YouTube
As a social media savvy
company, Zappos.com has its own YouTube channel since March 2006 with only 3020
subscribers, 354 videos, and total 3.74 million video views. Zappos.com keeps
the overall outlook consistently. For example, they use “Zappos.com offers free
shipping and free return shipping with a 365-day return policy. Choose from
over 1000 brands, over 100,000 styles, and over 3 million items from our
warehouse full of shoes, clothing, handbags, and accessories!” in any channels
of their online presences.
Their channel mainly still
focuses on fashion trends, new brands or products introduction and even their
employees’ activities. At the same time, they encourage customers to upload and
share videos on YouTube about Zappos. Compared to eBay on YouTube, eBay has
double subscribers and views than Zappos.com. Additionally, the average view of
Zappos’ videos is around 800 to 1500 (Zappos, 2013). I have watched couple of
their videos; I found their videos were not interesting and entertaining enough
to attract customers. At this point, Zappos needs to switch the focus and
create more impressive videos.
Google+
Although Google+ is a new
social media platform online, Zappos.com has made numerous contributions to it.
They try to be consistently updating information on Google+, also presenting
similar content and pictures to it as same as Facebook and Blogs. Personally I
think that Zappos.com should tailor Google+ differently than other online
presences, instead of posting similar contents and pictures. Repeatable posts
could lose customers’ interests and attention.
Mobile Apps
I consider mobile apps as one of the most important online presences for
Zappos.com. It is available for IOS, Android and Kindle (Zappos, 2012). Zappos
has taken a customer-centric approach to capture more new customers and provide
a better navigation tool for them to shop. Having the mobile apps could not
only improve customers’ shopping experience up to the next level, but also can increase
customer loyalty and trustworthiness. Ordering products on Zappos mobile apps
could able to earn more VIP points, expedited returns and 24 hours shipping
(Kats, 2012).
When we talk about accessories,
shoes and clothing, the very first thing coming into my mind are fashion,
trends, and brands. Since Zappos.com targets itself as a fashion leading
company on different online presences, other fashion magazines are the key
online influencers to Zappos at the same time. These magazines such as Elle, Trend
Hunter, and Vogue have huge influence on fashion trends and customers’ shopping
decision making.
The second online influencers
are Zappos’ suppliers and existing customers. The voices of customers and
suppliers online have ten times effective and valuable than advertising. Customers’
comments, posts, testimonials and suggestions can influence the credit,
reliability, and reputation of Zappos.com. Zappos.com has done a great job on
maintaining long-term and stable relationship with all three influencers.
Zappos.com,
as one of the leading online retail empires, has done an excellent job and has effectively
used different social media platform to communicate with customers. Zappos.com
has handled successfully on the security threat that was happened in Jan 2012.
Zappos has well established crisis management skills to comfort customers and
respond every single negative comment online immediately. There will be no
company like Zappos who could maintain its reputation and win customers back
after being hacked 24 million accounts information.
Bibliography
Zappos.com . (n.d.). Shoes, Clothing, and More-
Zappos.com . Retrieved February 8, 2013, from http://zappos.com
Zappos. (2013). Zappos-Facebook. Retrieved February 8, 2013,
from http://www.facebook.com/#!/zappos?fref=ts
Hsieh, T. (2009, January 3). Instant dance party at
Zappos! [Web log message]. Retrieved February 8, 2013 from http://blogs.zappos.com
Zappos. (n.d.). Zappos – YouTube. YouTube –
Broadcast Yourself. Retrieved February 8, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/user/zappos?blend=2&ob=0
Kats
(May, 2012).. Zappos exec: Apps are a loyalty tool. Retrieved February 8, 2013,
from Mobile Commerce Daily http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/zappos-exec-apps-are-a-loyalty-tool
Zappos. (n.d) Zappos Apps. Retrieved February 8, 2013,
from
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