The year was 1999, and Zappos founder, Nick Swinmurn, was walking around a mall in San Francisco, looking for a pair of shoes. One store had the right style, but not the right color. Another store had the right color, but not the right size. Nick spent the next hour in the mall, walking from store to store, and finally went home empty-handed and frustrated. So in 1999 Nick decided to quit his day job and start an online shoe retailer... and Zappos.com was born! The original idea was to create a web site that offered the absolute best selection in shoes in terms of brands, styles, colors, sizes, and widths. Over the past 6 years, the Zappos brand and our aspirations have evolved, and in addition to offering the best selection, we now want to be the company that provides the absolute best service online -- not just in shoes, but eventually in any category.
In brick and mortar stores, about 1 in 3 sales are lost due to the customer's size not being in stock. Brick and mortar stores are limited in how much inventory they can carry, and therefore they are limited in the number of brands, number of styles per brand, and number of sizes and widths they can carry.
Zappos carries over 500 name brands, over 90,000 styles, and close to 2 million pairs of shoes -- ready for immediate shipment. They offer the absolute best selection of shoes available anywhere, and more important to Zappos -- the absolute best service.
Winning bidder will receive a $75.00 e-gift certificate toward a one-time purchase at Zappos.com.