Zappos and Amazon Sitting in a Tree…
Posted on July 23, 2009 Comments (6)
Amazon is acquiring the unique company – Zappos: we have written about Zappos previously: Paying New Employees to Quit. Jeff Bezos uses the webcast above to talk to the employees of Zappos. Excellent job. The letter from Tony Hsieh, the Zappo’s CEO, to employees is fantastic. This is a CEO that respects employees. These are leaders I would follow and invest in (and in fact I am glad I do own Amazon stock).
…
Several months ago, they reached out to us and said they wanted to join forces with us so that we could accelerate the growth of our business, our brand, and our culture. When they said they wanted us to continue to build the Zappos brand (as opposed to folding us into Amazon), we decided it was worth exploring what a partnership would look like.
We learned that they truly wanted us to continue to build the Zappos brand and continue to build the Zappos culture in our own unique way. I think “unique” was their way of saying “fun and a little weird.” 
Over the past several months, as we got to know each other better, both sides became more and more excited about the possibilities for leveraging each other’s strengths. We realized that we are both very customer-focused companies — we just focus on different ways of making our customers happy.
Amazon focuses on low prices, vast selection and convenience to make their customers happy, while Zappos does it through developing relationships, creating personal emotional connections, and delivering high touch (“WOW”) customer service.
Related: Jeff Bezos Spends a Week Working in Amazon’s Kentucky Distribution Center – Amazon Innovation – Amazon’s Amazing Achievement
Jeff Bezos highlighted what he knows in the webcast: Obsess over customers – Invent – Think long term – It’s always day 1
Categories: Creativity, Customer focus, Deming, Fun, Innovation, Investing, Management, Respect, Systems thinking
Tags: Amazon, Bezos, Customer focus, customer service, Innovation, Investing, long term thinking, respect for people
6 Responses to “Zappos and Amazon Sitting in a Tree…”
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July 23rd, 2009 @ 9:20 am
I’m very curious and excited about what the cutomer experience could became from the fusion of these two companies. They are both known for dealing REALLY WELL their customers, in different ways, and the fusion of it could become a benchmark for everyone to follow. Way to go for two LEAN companies!
July 23rd, 2009 @ 3:53 pm
[...] I just got done watching this video of Jeff Bezos, of Amazon, where he announced that Amazon has snatched up Zappos over on John Hunter’s blog. [...]
July 26th, 2009 @ 1:32 pm
[...] shows they are the type of management I want to invest in. In my last post I discussed another: Jeff Bezos at Amazon: Google management is management system I am glad to invest in. See, my 12 stocks for 10 year [...]
August 3rd, 2009 @ 5:57 pm
Great video John. Jeff shares 3 simple things, but so few can pull them off.
It will be interesting to check back in on Zappos in about a year or so from now and see how things are going.
August 13th, 2009 @ 2:34 am
[...] ha acquistato la Zappos.com per 847.000.000$. Potete leggere alcuni articoli che ne parlano qui, qui, qui e [...]
September 28th, 2011 @ 7:33 pm
Amazon has unveiled their new Android Tablet and it sells for just $199 for a 7″ multi-touch display…