Zappos.com - THE place for shoes.
Written: Feb 05 '07 (Updated Feb 05 '07)
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Friends of mine have been yapping about Zappos.com for ages it seems. I never really listened much as I couldn’t imagine shopping for shoes online. Online apparel shopping doesn’t really work for me so I didn’t hold out much hope for online shoe shopping. But about a year ago I forgot to bring my shoes to work. It was a snowy day so I threw my pink Skechers boots on and out the door I went without stopping to grab my black work shoes. Sure enough I had a meeting with a client that day and just couldn’t bring myself to schlep myself in there wearing pink boots with fake lamb wool coming out the top to a meeting with the client so I borrowed my friend Sandy’s shoes. Well those shoes were so warm and comfy that I just HAD to have my own pair of black Rocket Dog Fuzzies. I started my search but couldn’t find them anywhere local. I found them online but was reluctant even though I knew that Sandy’s size six Fuzzies fit me fine. It’s just a weird hang up I have about shopping for any kind of apparel online. But it’s been a year and I can’t find them here so I decided to give in and give Zappos.com a try.
About Zappos.com
Zappos was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn. He had been wandering around a mall in San Francisco shopping for a pair of shoes and became frustrated because he couldn’t find exactly what he was looking for. He tried shopping online for shoes but struck out again and noticed that there was not really an online retailer that carried a wide variety of shoes. As a result he decided to launch his own online shoe store - Zappos.com. – which strives to offer the best selection, excellent customer service, and speedy shipping. Zappos warehouses every product that they sell and doesn’t make any item available for sale in the website unless it is literally physically present in their warehouse.
Sounds good, but what’s so special about Zappos?
Let me count the ways! Seriously. I’ve never encountered any retailer, online or otherwise, that offers the benefits that Zappos offers.
Selection - Zappos offers the most incredible selection of shoes I’ve ever seen. Stats on Zappos.com state that today alone they have 1,036 brands and 132,469 styles, 2,868,019 total products in stock and ready to ship immediately. That’s pretty amazing. New styles and products for men, women, juniors, and kids are added daily.
Not just shoes! - in addition to having a gazillion pairs of shoes, Zappos there is also a good selection of accessories, such as apparel, handbags, diaper bags, accessories, and eyewear.
Free shipping both ways - Yep, you read that right; free shipping to the customer and free shipping if the customer returns the item. Zappos believes that to have the best online shopping experience, customers should not have to pay for return shipping if the product is returned for any reason. That’s also pretty amazing. It’s so rare to receive a free shipping offer but to also get free shipping on returns is almost unprecedented. I’ve never heard of any other retailer offering this benefit.
365-day return policy - Zappos accepts returns within 365 days. All that they ask is that items are returned in new condition and in the original box.
110% price protection - And the benefits just keep coming. If, within 10 days of your purchase from Zappos, you find the exact same item offered at a lower price at another online or retail store, Zappos will refund 110% of the difference. The item must currently be in stock on Zappos.com.
Safe online shopping - When the customer clicks the “Proceed to Checkout” button to purchase the items in her cart, Zappos.com immediately employs secure socket layer technology (changes from http to https) which encrypts credit card information so that it cannot be read by others as it is transmitted across the internet.
Customer service - Zappos offers 24 hours a day, seven days a week customer service via a toll-free telephone number. They also offer the ability to send questions via an online form and also provide their mailing address and email address on the customer service page of the website. There is also a detailed FAQ question which answers many questions customers may have about shipping, returns, the 100% price guarantee, and much, much more.
My experience
As mentioned above, I had been pining for a pair of Rocket Dog Fuzzy clogs. They’re cute, comfy, and warm and I’ve wanted them for over a year. After the rave reviews from four friends who have used Zappos.com dozens of times, I broke down, threw caution to the wind and bought them on Zappos.
After calling up the site by name, I was presented with a multitude of options for finding my Fuzzies. I could search by Department (men, women, juniors, kids), Lifestyle (Rodeo Drive, The Gym, Retro, The Office, Skate Park, After Hours, etc), Type/Style (casual, athletic, boots, sandals, slippers, platforms, work/duty, clogs, mules, walking, oxford, you name it!). You can even search simply by size, width, or color. I first tried to find my Fuzzies by clicking the Brand button, then the Rocket Dog link, then Women’s. That method indicated that there are 256 different shoe styles for the Rocket Dog brand in the Zappos warehouse. Being that I really just wanted the one pair of shoes and wished to have no temptation to buy more than that one pair, I changed my strategy. For the second search, I opted to simply type Rocket Dog Fuzzy into the Search field and clicked the “Go!” button to query the warehouse stock. Lo and behold the Fuzzies were displayed in living color right there on my screen. Yay.
Shoe stats
The top of the screen shows some stats about the shoe you’re looking at. In the case of my Fuzzies, the stats indicated that there are a total of 33 customer reviews for this shoe and it achieved a rating of 5 out of 5 stars in the categories of Overall, Comfort, and Look. To read the reviews just click the “Read Reviews Below” link which takes the user to the reviews section of the page. The text which accompanies the stats and pictures includes helpful information about fit, heel height and width, and shoe width. In addition to that, there are stats compiled from the results of the customer reviews that include customers’ opinions about the shoe being true to size, true to width, and the arch support.
Gotta love the pictures!
In my humble opinion, photos of products offered by online retailers tend to be unacceptable to me. I’m continually frustrated by sites that allow me to zoom in on an item but the zoomed image is blurry. Or an item is offered in 5 different color choices but the picture only shows the item on one color and the other 4 are just a square blob of color. I like to see the actual item in the color I’ve chosen, not try to imagine what it will look like. Sometimes I like to see the back or a shirt or sweater or pair of shoes. Zappos’ pictures leave nothing to the imagination. In fact, all of the shoe styles I viewed had seven pictures on the site. I was able to see the front, back, left side, right side, bottom, and top of my Fuzzies, as well as the pair of shoes together. In addition, by selecting a different color from the drop-down list the same picture views were displayed for the changed color. I love that. The other thing I love about Zappos’ pictures is that they are close-up views and large in size. I use a laptop so pictures are sometimes on the small side when displayed on my screen and enlarging them doesn’t usually make much of a difference. The text which accompanies Zappos they show lots of pictures, and the accompanying text includes much detail about the item and has a link to customer reviews. The pictures of my clogs and all the other shoes I viewed showed the pair of shoes together, and views of the top, bottom, left side, right side, back and front. My intent was to purchase the Rocket Dog Fuzzies in brown but, having seen them in brown and black from all views, decided that the black looked better so I changed my mind and ordered them in black.
Other cool things you can do
In addition to the basic information about products on the site, there are a number of cool things you can do on Zappos.com. For example, if the shoe you are looking for is not available in your size, you can click the Notify Me if My Size Becomes Available button which displays a form on which you can select the size, width, and color and Zappos will email you when the item becomes available. You can also click the Tell A Friend button to send an email with a link to the shoe to someone. You can also write an online review of an item you already own or add an item to your list of favorites. Finally, you can enter your email address into a field near the bottom of the screen to be notified when new items for a selected brand are added to the database.
Checkout
After selecting size and color from the drop-down list, I clicked the Add to Shopping Cart button to add the shoes to my cart. As I was finished shopping, I immediately clicked the Checkout button however you can continue to shop and add items to your cart and checkout at a later time. As I was a new customer when I placed this order, I entered my email address and clicked another button to register myself on the site by entering my billing and shipping addresses and choosing a password. Once registered, Zappos saves all of my shipping and billing information so I don’t have to enter it again on future orders.
When my order had been placed a confirmation page displayed which included my confirmation number, totals, and the shipping and billing addresses. It also indicated that I would receive a confirmation email. I placed this order at about 10pm on a Saturday so I didn’t really expect to receive any kind of correspondence until Monday, however I toggled over to my email about one minute later and found the confirmation email had already been delivered. The email displayed the date and time of my order, details about the item(s) ordered, totals, information about returns, and how to contact customer service. The following morning I checked my email again and found an email stating that my order had been shipped and included a UPS tracking number. Of course I hopped right over to UPS.com to check the status of my order and read that it was scheduled to be delivered on Tuesday. Pretty good for an order placed at 10pm on a Saturday night and it kind of shocked me. It turns out that not only does Zappos offer free UPS domestic ground shipping, they are also running a special shipping promotion available thru February, 28, 2007. Orders placed between 1 PM PST on Friday and 11:59 PM PST on Sunday (or during a holiday) will be shipped on the next business day and delivered within 1 business day after that. The promotion is available only in the continental U.S. and cannot be sent to a PO Box. So not only was shipping free, it was also expedited because I was lucky enough to shop for my Fuzzies now instead of at the beginning of next month.
Order received, repeat customer is born
As I placed my order late on a Saturday night, I fully expected to receive my order on Tuesday, even with the expedited shipping. UPS.com indicated that it would be delivered on Tuesday and I was more than happy with that delivery date, however I received the shoes today. On Monday. Cool.
The white Zappos box was waiting for me out on my front porch when I arrived home after work. The tape on the outside of the box was a bit troubling as it didn’t completely seal the box. It was placed at an angle so only half of the box was actually sealed and the flap was flapping in the wind. Luckily it was a box of shoes so nothing could have fallen out. When I opened the box it was full of plastic pillows filled with air to keep the contents from flopping around. The Rocket Dog shoe box was shrink-wrapped in plastic but was easy to rip open. The shoes were inside the shoe box and were wrapped in Rocket Dog tissue paper. The insides of the shoes were stuffed with cardboard inserts to keep the shape just like the shoes at any normal, brick and mortar shoe store.
There wasn’t an invoice in the box. Instead of an invoice, Zappos includes an order summary/letter which lists only the name of the item ordered, the color and size, and the shipping address to which the order was sent. I like this an awful lot as invoices containing my billing information make me very uncomfortable and I feel the need to immediately shred them. I like that Zappos has protected my personal information in this manner. The letter thanks me for my order and requests that I try my shoes on inside on a carpeted surface before wearing them outside. This is to ensure that they can provide a full refund in the event that I am unsatisfied with my order. It also includes instructions on where to go on Zappos.com to print a pre-paid return label and reiterates basic details about the 365 day refund policy.
One oddity
I purchased my shoes on Saturday for $39.95. Today, Monday, they are $45.95. I don’t understand the fluctuation in price and it concerns me somewhat. Not horribly, but I’m kind of cheap so when I place another order, it’ll bug me if I buy something and the price goes down by $6 two days later. I wonder if the price fluctuation qualifies for the 110% price guarantee. Somehow I doubt it.
Bottom Line
After ignoring my friends’ ravings about Zappos.com, I am so happy that I finally took the plunge and placed an order. Shopping in Zappos.com is easy and informative and you just gotta love free shipping both ways and great views of the products. I will definitely order from Zappos again. I’m really happy with my Zappos.com experience. Not only did I find the shoes I’ve been coveting for many months, I found them at a good price, didn’t have to pay for shipping, didn’t have to pay for expedited shipping, and received them a day early.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Rocket Dog Fuzzy clogs
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