Forum Moderators: buckworks
Site was apparently just launched. Very innovative in the way products are organized and shown, features I haven't seen elsewhere. Moreover, it offers free overnight shipping, free return shipping and 365 day guarantee. (yikes!)
I'm certainly not trying to plug Amazon's business, but retailers should take a look at this cutting edge site. Also have to wonder how far Amazon is going with spinoff specialty sites like Endless.
Moreover, it offers free overnight shipping, free return shipping and 365 day guarantee. (yikes!)
These policies are standard in the online shoe industry. It would be difficult to launch a new site without offering these features.
This site is really a shot across the bow of Zappos, which has experienced absolutely phenomenal growth the last few years. Personally, I suspect that Amazon would have been better off buying Zappos if they wanted a chunk of this market rather than creating a "me too" in a crowded space (e.g. Zappos, Shoes, ShoeBuy, and Piperlime) but who knows.
I'm guessing they have distribution centers located across the country, so that UPS Ground deliveries reach their destination the next day.
I'm not sure how they accomplish that trick for AK and HI.
I think I'll start "borrowing" my shoes from Amazon for 364 days at a time. Some of these incentives can't last (can they?)
I wonder if Zappos is going to counter this move by simply applying pressure to the margin by lowering the price.
I find it very interesting that they've created a whole new site for this venture instead of just another category in the "mall" that is Amazon. I can't recall them doing that for any other product category (except speciality sites such as A9). They also don't promote it very heavily as an "Amazon" owned company except in the About section and during checkout (powered by AMZN).
My initial reaction was "uh-oh, this is an area where the little guy will have no chance to compete with the big boys". But, i dont think this model works for most online retail segments.
Good question: why not buy Zappos or the like?
AMZN certainly has the cash ($2 billion of it!)and shares to use. But throwing money at pricey buyouts didn't work in the '90s. The value of other buy out candidates soared making acquisitions ever more expensive till the bubble burst.
But buying does make sense if Amazon wants to "endlessly" clone endless.com into other markets.
This bold move sends an unmistakable message to future buyout candidates: "sell at a REASONABLE price or we (and our billions in cash) will enter your niche without you."
Then, shortly before Christmas, it all changed. Within a period of two weeks, there was nothing on the site with more than a 10% markdown from the original price. At first I thought it was just a pre-Christmas thing, but it didn't stop. Last week I finally sent them an email begging them to tell me this was some kind of a temporary policy, but the answer was that, nope, this is permanent. Needless to say, I'll only be buying what I need from now on (they still have the world's best customer service, and I still have weird-sized feet, so I don't intend to desert them completely).
I hadn't heard about the new Amazon site until I saw this thread. The two things seem too closely linked timewise to be completely unrelated, but I'm not sure what would be behind it. Is it an effort by Zappos to keep their margin high enough to not get blown out of the water? Have the big-name expensive shoe brands started sending their clearance goods to Amazon instead of Zappos?
-----ETA: I just checked out the endless.com site. I'm underwhelmed, but it is still in beta. The selection so far doesn't hold a candle to Zappos, with many of the best brands not listed at all. The search options aren't nearly as useful as Zappos (for me, at least). It's slow-loading. And, surprisingly for an Amazon site, it lacks one of Zappos best features - customer reviews.
[edited by: Beagle at 4:54 am (utc) on Jan. 8, 2007]
