E-commerce SWOT Analysis: Zappos Company

Zappos Company
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Zappos Company
Zappos was instituted in the year 2009 by Swinmurm together with Tony Hsieh and Alfred Lin. These individuals invested about two million USA dollars into the company. It was officially launched as a Shoe site Company in 1999 (Kumar & Mukherjee, 2018). In July 1999, the firm name was altered from Shoe site to Zappos after Zapatos. In 2000, Venture Frogs invested in Zappos, which nourished it to date.
Growth
From 1999 to 2022, Zappos Company has earned about 200 USA billion dollars in gross sales. Similarly, Zappos acquired 8.6 million USA dollars, which significantly increased from the previous year. In 2004, the organization attained 184 million USA dollars in gross sales and received 35 million USA dollars from Sequoia Capital (Kumar & Mukherjee, 2018). Consequently, they moved from San Francisco to Henderson in Nevada. In 2007, Zappos doubled its yearly revenues, reaching 840 million USA dollars in gross sales. It began expanding to sell eyewear, watches, clothing, and children's wear. These activities increased its sales to one billion USA dollars and became number 23 on Fortune's top 100 firms to work for. Despite facing high competition from rival companies such as Gabana and Dolce, Zappos has continued to witness progress in its sales and annual growth.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Zappos Company depends on happiness, passion, purpose, and emotional connection by offering a 1000 USA dollars quit-that-day bonus to potential employees (Perschel, 2010). The organization also aim to weed out employee or workforce that don't embrace their positive energy. On the other hand, Zappos has a strong client relationship with potential clients and other crucial stakeholders. It provides an effective online platform for employees to solve their concerns and attend to their urgent needs. Such complaints are solved within two business working days. Zappos Organization engages in corporate social responsibility, offering shoes to needy students and sponsoring the education of disadvantaged students in most USA states. It has retained about 70% of its clients since Zappos was founded.
On the other hand, Zappos has received many awards for being the best company offering quality client services, corporate culture, and an appropriate business model. It has expressed a strong online presence by establishing effective online platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, corporate websites, and Instagram, which markets its products across all nations. Zappos Company believes in transparency and fairness (Perschel, 2010). For example, clients can return products within seven days of purchase without a fine. Similarly, it offers various products such as shoes and clothing under the roof, allowing potential clients to purchase many products at once without going to other shops. Zappos uses little resources by recycling old shoes and selling them at reasonable prices, of which some are donated to community members.
Weakness
The merge between Zappos and Amazon has negatively affected the image of Zappos and had devastating impacts on potential clients (Ashfaq et al., 2014). Most customers consider the idea a wrong decision since it creates confusion on what products to trust and purchase. It seems Amazon has diluted most of the products sold by Zappos, making it not stand out among its potential rival companies. On the other hand, Zappos and Amazon also engage in stiff competition, making it hard for Zappos to have loyal clients and achieve maximum sales from its products. Zappos has also been accused of unethical advertising to sell its shoes. There have been cases of stealing client data, including credit card data, which raised many questions on its online security system strategies to protect clients from such issues. Notably, Zappos Organization has been accused of underpaying its sales representative. For example, a sales agent earns about 23000 USA dollars annually, which is 3% below the minimum wage needed for every employee.
Opportunities
Zappos Company has launched new products to reduce dependency on shoe selling as the primary product. It has generated about 80% sales since engaging in new products. The idea has enabled the company to reach new clients and retain the existing ones. Furthermore, Zappos Company has reinforced its online system by installing anti-hacking measures to protect all clients against cybersecurity issues (Hanson et al., 2012). Most clients have been notified about the same development to gain their trust and start transacting. Zappos seek employees operating with fun and hard work; hence it presents an opportunity for the company to attain committed workers ready to push it to the next level. Zappos employs workers passionate about what they do, which can motivate them to unleash their full potential in ...