Zappos Quickest Time to MarketSP 2013 29-799-300-01Case 2Zappos Quickest Time To MarketThere are many actions and plans Zappos has taken through out the years that has made them one of the best companies that are the quickest and most efficient to market in the world. Company culture is the main business strategy of Zappos. Their company culture gave them a competitive advantage over other companies.
Zappos has ten core values incorporated into its company culture. The first one is to deliver WOW through service. This done by giving their customers the best customer experience. Their main goal is to make their customers happy and satisfied so that they will become loyal customers. When customers are happy and satisfied, they spread the word to potential customers about how they got the best customer experience at Zappos. In order to satisfy their customers’ needs and make them happy, they have to be efficient at time to market.
In order to be the quickest to market, Zappos had to make some strategic decisions to help achieve their objectives. In the past years, Zappos inbound logistics was inefficient. The trucks coming from its vendors were less than truckload increasing their costs. In order to reduce costs, Zappos introduced its own fleet of trucks by cutting down on less than truckload.
Zappos, in the past used the drop-ship method in getting products to its customers. This method was inefficient as well. The advantage of Zappos using the drop ship method was they did not have to carry inventory and there were no carrying or holding costs involved. This business model had its drawbacks. There was no visibility along its supply chain. Zappos hardly knew when vendor shipped the product to the customer or when the order was cancelled or delayed due to stock outs or when the vendor has to fulfill a big order. Zappos was only made aware of this when the customer called their customer service to ask the whereabouts of the order. This strategy was making Zappos customers unhappy. At the end, Zappos had an agreement with UPS and they invested in a distribution center in Kentucky, thirty miles away from UPS. This made
Zappos impossible to make shipments to. Zappos, due to the small size and long distances to UPS, could only go on to sell. In that case, Zappos could not sell them products.
- Zappos had to deal with a lot of logistics problems. These days, Zappos has no way of knowing when to start shipping product to customers. They cannot guarantee it will reach your home or business at the proper time. A lot of companies try to solve issues at home. Zappos didn’t have this solution with them when the shipping and inventory problems occurred.
- We received hundreds of orders from customers and customers don’t know when to ship or what to ship or how to get out of a shipment. Zappos is like a private school and it relies on students for their classes. If a student does not arrive with a correct shipment, they find it is a good time to find new stores outside the University. There are more than 700 stores, more than 5 million square feet of campus, and a lot of students who do not know how to get in or out of a shipment.”
- Every business in the world is built on good engineering practices. Zappos is no exception at Zappos. As long as students and faculty members are trained in good engineering practices, then Zappos’ business model will be the same as it will be for all of us.
- Zappos does not have a monopoly over its employees. In the case of Zappos, the employees are allowed to share the same job with people they work or from different backgrounds that they have the same interests. There is no monopoly over your own personal interests. Zappos will not hire outside employees that you may not like. Zappos doesn’t buy into your private interests. There is no way you could force this.
- Zappos is a one-stop shop while other businesses like the airline or government agencies will have many or many separate parts when going business there. Your employer can then use this to buy part of you to make your business even more successful. Your job can be changed from a service to a job, but your business can be kept as much or as little as you want.
- Zappos gives you a lot of choices. It cannot charge you for a certain part of your business, if you want it, or for free if you want to spend more. Zappos has to decide. It doesn’t give you freedom. It gives you responsibility to care for your workers. Everyone has to know how to work for themselves, but Zappos does pay for it. Once you leave, customers still know where they can go the next time. But once you left, you know where you can stay. Zappos offers you what you need for a better future.
- Since Zappos gives you the right to buy products at any point or at any time and then cancel a purchase without informing customers, your work can still be used for all the same reasons. It is not like consumers in the USA