On the July 17th, 2009, Zappos.com, a privately-held online retailer of shoes, clothing, and other soft-line retail categories, learned that Amazon.com, a $19 billion multinational online vendor, had won its Board of Directors' endorsement to offer to unify the two companies. Amazon and Zappos was courting since 2005, hoping a merger would enable its market share strengthen and to enlarge in soft-line retail categories. While Zappos' senior executives intrigued, they had not felt the time was appropriate--until now.
Zappos.com 2009 Clothing, Customer Service, and Company Culture, Chinese Version Case Solution
Zappos' financial advisor, Morgan Stanley, predicted the prospect equity value of an IPO to be between $650 million and $905 million; this approximation skewed the Amazon offer-at least in financial terms--toward the high end of Zappos' probable market value. Hsieh and Lin, Zappos' CEO and COO, correspondingly, understood that much of Zappos' increase, and hence its worth, had been due to the firm's powerful culture and obsessive emphasis on customer service. In 2009, they were focusing on the three C's- company culture, customer service, and clothes --the keys to the sustained growth of the business. Lin and Hsieh had only a couple of days to contemplate whether to recommend the amalgamation to Zappos' board at their July 21 meeting.
PUBLICATION DATE: October 20, 2009 PRODUCT #: 610C09-PDF-CHI
This is just an excerpt. This case is about SALES & MARKETING
Related Case Solutions & Analyses:
Ontela PicDeck (A): Customer Segmentation Targeting and Positioning
Blogging at BzzAgent
Hennes & Mauritz, 2000
Red Bull (B): A Shot at the Future?
TALLY Solutions Pvt. Ltd.: Building the Platform
Altius Golf and the Fighter Brand, Spanish Version
Cirque du Soleil: Cultivating Creativity and Designing to Delight
Quebecor Inc: The Decision To Acquire Videotron
Spanish Vines: Colombian Market Entry
Tesla Motors
