Who else wants to see Zappos.com run the world’s first (and would be undoubtedly the best) penny auction site for shoes? They aren’t going to, at least not that we know of, but if they did they’d win.
Zappos fosters creative employees. Excels in customer service with quick shipping and response times, and even randomly awards customers with gifts. Plus, with just the money they made on Cyber Monday alone (in excess of $18 million), I am sure that if Zappos started a penny auction site they would be the world’s largest and most successful.
Perhaps you have shopped on Zappos, are a burgeoning entrepreneur, or just like to look at pictures, read on…
While I was in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show (More on my favorites and what penny auctions really need to auction, soon!) I had the opportunity to visit Zappos’ offices in Henderson, Nevada and would like to share an insiders view into Zappos with you.
In case you don’t know the story of Zappos
Zappos was founded in 1999 by the young entrepreneur Nick Swinmurn.
Nick was walking around a mall in San Francisco trying to find a pair of shoes, one store had the style he liked, but not the color. Another store had the color he wanted but not the size, he was frustrated. Out of his frustration he founded Zappos.com. He initially wanted it to be something like shoestore.com, but that was too generic and thought in the future he might like to sell other products. Inspired by the Spanish word for shoes zapatos, Zappos was born. They started small in the same building as Craig Newman of Craigslist in San Francisco and drop shipped items. After 4 years they reached their $1 million dollar day.
Now, 10 years later, Zappos is the largest online shoe store in the world and with the help of a very creative team and Tony Hsieh as CEO, Zappos went from $0 in sales to over $1 billion in just 10 years.
Zappos has been rated #6 in CNN Money’s top 100 best places to work. Zappos started out with just Nick to a handful of employees, now they have over 1,400 employees and 3 buildings in Las Vegas and in 2009 were acquired by Amazon.com for $850 million.
From the moment I stepped into Zappos’ offices I was shocked by the amount of creativity that Zappos allows their employees to turn what could be a mundane cubicle field into a 24/7 party room. (NOTE to the obsessive compulsive looking for a job: You won’t be a good fit…)
- Desks were covered in tin foil and wrapping paper, pink flamingos, rubber duckies and other toys.
- Streamers draped from the ceiling and employees each had their own beta fish.
- Floors were adorned in astroturf and bean bag chairs, and there were cupcakes and balloons.
- Employees were seen playing with light sabers, some wore pajamas.
Zappos’ CEO Tony Hsieh doesn’t have his own office, his space is in Monkey Row and above his desk hangs a ton of artificial-jungle vines.
New employees receive provisional license name plates above their cubicles. Zappos lets their employees come to work in pajamas. They provide a lot of great benefits, free food, snacks, drinks and ice cream from free vending machines.
Plus, they even have an onsite life coach to help their employees achieve any goal whether personal or professional. After an employee has achieved their goal they let them sit on the throne in their Royalty Room.
Zappos sends WOW packages randomly to customers and they follow up on thousands of e-mails and calls each day. Out of 10,161 calls on 01/10/12 only 48 were abandoned. Out of 4,533 e-mails, 3,592 were resolved.
What can you learn from Zappos to become the best penny auction site?
Be creative. Allow your employees to be creative. Be attentive and provide your customers with the best penny auction experience possible. Ship free. Ship fast. Answer e-mails promptly. Send your own version of wow packages. LabelDoll.com – no longer a penny auction – wowed me and other customers with their attention to detail and personalized support. Be different.
Wisdom from Tony Hsieh’s book, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
On Financials & Strategy in terms of poker and success in business, this can also be applied to penny auction bidding:
Financials
- Always be prepared for the worst possible scenario.
- The guy who wins the most hands is not the guy who makes the most money in the long run.
- The guy who never loses a hand is not the guy who makes the most money in the long run.
- Go for positive expected value, not what’s least risky.
- Make sure your bankroll is large enough for the game you’re playing and the risks you’re taking.
- Play only with what you can afford to lose.
- Remember that it’s a long-term game. You will win or lose individual hands or sessions, but it’s what happens in the long term that matters.
Strategy
- Don’t play games that you don’t understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them.
- Figure out the game when the stakes aren’t high.
- Don’t cheat. Cheaters never win in the long run.
- Stick to your principles.
- You need to adjust your style of play throughout the night as the dynamics of the game change. Be flexible.
- Be patient and think long-term.
The players with the most stamina and focus usually win.
- Differentiate yourself. Do the opposite of what the rest of the table is doing.
- Hope is not a good plan.
- Don’t be cocky. Don’t be flashy. There’s always someone better than you.
- Share what you’ve learned with others.
- Have fun. The game is a lot more enjoyable when you’re trying to do more than just make money.
- Inertia. I’d realized that whether in poker, in business, or in life, it was easy to get caught up and engrossed in what I was currently doing, and that made it easy to forget that I always had the option to change tables. Psychologically, it’s hard because of all the inertia to overcome. Without conscious and deliberate effort, inertia always wins. (p69).
Zappos 10 Core Values
- Deliver WOW through service
- Embrace and drive change
- Create fun and a little weirdness
- Be adventurous, creative, and open-minded
- Pursue growth and learning
- Build open and honest relationship with communication
- Build a postive team and family spirit
- Do more with less
- Be passionate and determined
- Be Humble
212: The Extra Degree by Sam Parker
The Three Laws of Performance: Rewriting the Future of Your Organization and Your Life (J-B Warren Bennis Series)
The 4 Essentials of Entrepreneurial Thinking: What Successful People Didn’t Learn in School
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (Expanded and Updated)
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Believe Me: Why Your Vision, Brand, and Leadership Need a Bigger Story
Comedy Writing Secrets: The Best-Selling Book on How to Think Funny, Write Funny, Act Funny, And Get Paid For It, 2nd Edition
Do One Green Thing: Saving the Earth Through Simple, Everyday Choices
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Emotional Equations: Simple Truths for Creating Happiness + Success
Fish! A Proven Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results
Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being
The Fred Factor: How Passion in Your Work and Life Can Turn the Ordinary into the Extraordinary
Get Off Your “But”: How to End Self-Sabotage and Stand Up for Yourself
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t
Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment
The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
The Method Method: Seven Obsessions That Helped Our Scrappy Start-up Turn an Industry Upside Down
Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow
Prosper: Create the Life You Really Want (BK Life)
Stumbling on Happiness
SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization
Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier
The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful
Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life
The Zappos Experience: 5 Principles to Inspire, Engage, and WOW
I hope you enjoyed our insider’s look into Zappos.com. Thanks for the tour Rocko & Zappos!
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