Online Shoe Seller Can Help Luxury Home Goods Get Leg Up
The article below about Zappos.com offers ideas to help online stores increase their sales. These strategies include: - free shipping - free returns - a more generous return policy - free upgrades on shipping
Do these services above cost $ to offer? Yes, however, for a $1 spent, they may give back $5 in sales. That is how Zappos.com sees it. And they do almost $1 billion in sales. Also, check out their website: http://www.zappos.com/ The design is not sleek; it's down right functional and structured for Google's crawler.
Notice: - the popular search links at the top. google pays close attention to links at the top of pages. - the blue underlined links. very simple. everyone knows blue underlined means it's a link. - navigation on the RIGHT side of the screen. why? most people keep their mouse icon on the right side of the screen, since the scroll bar is there.
You're welcome to post your thoughts.
............................ Excerpt: The approach is producing results, as customers keep coming back. Mr. Hsieh says some 75% of Zappos' sales come from repeat customers. This year, the number of paying customers has grown to 8.2 million, which, Mr. Hsieh notes, means that 3% of the U.S. population is shopping at Zappos.
Free delivery, free returns and a 365-day return policy have been the cornerstone of Zappos' customer-centric approach. It even quietly upgrades the experience, from four-to-five-day shipping to second-day or next-day shipping, to wow customers. Its customer-service center is staffed 24/7 with 500 employees -- about a third of the company's payroll -- answering 5,000 calls a day.
"Those things are all pretty expensive, but we view that as our marketing dollars," Mr. Hsieh says. "It's just a lot cheaper to get existing customers to buy from you again than it is to try to convince someone [new]."
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ZapposCustomer Service First -- and a Daily Obsession By Natalie Zmuda Advertising Age
Published: October 17, 2008
Imagine a retailer with service so good its customers wish it would take over the Internal Revenue Service or start up an airline. It might sound like a marketing fantasy, but this scenario is reality for 9-year-old Zappos.com.