Can you imagine having over 1.7 million pairs of brand new shoes to choose from at your fingertips 24/7, 365 days a year? That’s exactly what Nick Swinmurn, founder and chairman of Internet-based Zappos.com, created, along with his rapidly-growing team of nearly 600 hardworking employees.
"I was born in England and moved to the Bay Area when I was 7," states Swinmurn. "I went to college in Santa Barbara, then San Diego. I worked in a variety of jobs including the San Diego Padres, Autoweb and at Silicon Graphics as a Web designer.
"In 1998, I did some research on the shoe industry and found it was a $40 billion market and that 5% of shoes, or $2 billion worth, were sold through mail order catalogues. I attended my first World Shoe Association show in Las Vegas in February of 1999 with just a business card and an idea for shoesite.com. Without an appointment, none of the brands would see me.
"By June of 1999, I quit my job and raised about $150,000 from friends and family. The first thing I needed was to find someone who knew shoes. I decid-ed I would contact Nordstrom, and asked to speak with a shoe buyer."
Swinmurn eventually managed to hire shoe buyer Fred Mossler away from Nordstrom as his senior vice president of merchandising. Mossler’s vast industry contacts opened many doors for their growing company at the next WSA show in Las Vegas.
His biggest break came though when he was introduced to Tony Hseih, 31, Internet success story and former CEO of Link Exchange who in 1998 sold his company to Microsoft for a whopping $265 million. Hseih then created a $30 million venture fund and in August 1999, agreed to invest $500,000 in the newly-named Zappos.com, and also came aboard to lead the company as their new CEO in early 2000.
Although the company was originally started in San Francisco, Zappos.com moved their headquarters to Las Vegas in April 2004. "We outgrew our call center. We reviewed about 15 possible cities and found Las Vegas offered a combination of a great business environment, a good quality of life and a good call center infrastructure. People were used to working 24/7 shifts. It only took us about a day to decide this was the best place for us. Las Vegas is a pretty easy town to get to like, with plenty to do.
"We’ve added brands each and every week and now have up to 500. We warehouse over 1.7 million pairs of shoes in our Kentucky warehouse. We do whatever it takes to wow the customer and offer them outstanding customer service 24/7, 365 days a year with free shipping and a 365-day return policy. We also offer free meals three times a day, snacks and sodas to our employees, which helps keep our employees very happy as well."
In the fall of 2004, Zappos.com was named No. 15 in the Inc. 500 list of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies and reported 2003 rev-enue of $52.6 million. In 2004, revenue reached $184 million and is targeted to exceed $300 million in 2005.
Life couldn’t be better for Swinmurn and his team of dot.com achievers. With sales of over one million pairs of shoes alone last year, Zappos.com is poised to grow at a tremendous rate. With the potential of adding other new product lines such as apparel, this innovative on-line giant in the making might have what it takes to be the next amazon.com or eBay.com within the next five years. The oddsmakers just might place this as one of the very best bets in town.
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Can you imagine having over 1.7 million pairs of brand new shoes to choose from at your fingertips 24/7, 365 days a year? That’s exactly what Nick Swinmurn, founder and chairman of Internet-based Zappos.com, created, along with his rapidly-growing team of nearly 600 hardworking employees.
"By June of 1999, I quit my job and raised about $150,000 from friends and family. The first thing I needed was to find someone who knew shoes. I decid-ed I would contact Nordstrom, and asked to speak with a shoe buyer."
