Deliver Happiness And Profits

When it comes to positive workplace cultures and exemplary customer service, few it seems could rival the happiness seen in Las Vegas based company Zappos. It all started in 1999 when their founder Nick Swinmurn found himself walking around a mall in San Francisco looking for a pair of shoes to no avail and then searching online only to turn up nothing. So Nick decided to quit his day job and start an online shoe retailer … and Zappos.com was born.

At Zappos they believe that the speed at which a customer receives an online purchase plays a very important role in how that customer thinks about shopping online again in the future, so at Zappos.com, they have put a lot of focus on making sure the items get delivered to customers as quickly as possible. In order to do that, they warehouse everything they sell, and unlike most other online retailers, they don’t make an item available for sale unless it is physically present in their warehouse. 

In 2001 Zappos brought in $8.6 million.

In 2003 they reached $70 million in gross sales.

In 2004, they achieved $184 million in gross sales.

In 2008, they hit $1 billion in annual sales, two years earlier than expected.

In 2009, just a decade after their launch the company announced its plans to join the Amazon.com, Inc. family with a buy out worth around $940 million in stock and cash.

In this episode  of UQTV we take a look under the hood at Zappos “work hard, play hard” culture to find out how their rituals deliver happiness and profits. 

CEO, UQ Power and International Company Culture Coach, Heidi Alexandra Pollard says her team are red hot, refreshing renegades, hunting down boring brands, stuck in a sea of sameness and charging them to power up their people, their presence and their profits. Their mission is to help elevate the global playing field for small to mid-sized companies through their unique brand and culture strategies that are easy on the finances, easy to implement and easy to sustain.