Why do they enjoy the working at Zappos ?

I konw Zappos for a long time because they are insanely successful. As a leader of selling shoes in the E-commerce industry, zappos is also known for a genuinely happy workplace, judging from the employees and medias.

The way Zappos treat its employees is surprised me. For sure, most of new hiring need to be trained before they do the real job. But can you believe after completing the training courses,   , the company offers $2000 if a new employee decide to quit right away? If you are a critical thinker, you shouldn't be shocked because of the money, but admire the self-confidence that most people are loved to stay to the company and committed the culture.

We all know the fact that people are happy at work which also ensure that they give incredibly working results and good customer service. And often that service goes above and beyond. Zappos gets this internal strategy, as more and more companies consider letting employees feel more happy are essential for the successful development. When bosses reserve the priority to their employees (not the clients, not the stakeholders, but the people get pays).They increase happiness, creativity, productivity and profits.

This is not a complicate case, but a common sense. Companies like Google, Southwest Airlines, , Disney, Pixar and many many others will verify the fact that it works. Actually, we already can see some.

What is the Search Engine Optimization ?

From the internet savvy result as we have it today, consumer's demand to the online search engine marketing for all the E-commerce companies turns more and more essential. What I mean by that is the application or operational system which pushes the websites rank higher in the Google's search result page. Therefore, a new business model company, rely on E-commerce, was created. They are called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Companies. Basically, the marketing strategy for E-commerce industry is getting high percentage of web presence. However, paying to a web searching engine for presence in such competitive market is not enough. The critical way is to be the top portion of website in the search engine result pages.

Base on my understanding, In order to improve the level of exposure the online, the E-commerce companies try so hard to popularize their web-sties in different ways, as much as they can, to increase the page-views and sale volume. These are the ways to reach out to maximum number of people at a time. But most important job has to be completed at this point is that the companies have to acquire potential customers who are in fact very valuable to them. That is what the SEO Companies are there for. They help the websites in all possible ways to get to the top position in the Search Engine Result pages with its various tools, the "Search Engine Marketing" being one of them.

By providing the Engine Marketing Tool package from SEO companies,  their clients' websites will increase the frequency of appearance on major Search websites ( such as Google and Bing). The popularity is supposed to be enhanced with more and people visiting their web pages or clicking its link. In fact, when the a people enters keywords related to the specific s/he is interested in, the Search Engines will automatically displayed many results related to the search topics. But on the vary top portion, Google and Bing charge this space, in the other words, the advertisement.  The webpage containing the most appropriate and relevant answer to the query of the visitor is always placed on the top of the search engine result pages. As more and more visitors click on the page, it gets higher ranking in the Search engine result pages.

US top 10 E-Retailer ranking

Smartphone apps

          Here is a situation: I believe many of us have experienced before. So when you shopping at a store, you suddenly get some questions regarding to a product you are interested. Now you have two options,  go asking a store associate or using the online apps by your smart phone, which will be pick? Recently study found that 73% of shoppers with smart phone favor using the phone on hand to handle simple tasks in stores compared with 15% who favor interaction with an employee, the survey says.  Similarly, 71% favor using their smart phone to identify a store with a desired item in stock, while 17% would prefer to get that information by speaking to an employee.

          This a pretty good news for those retailers who have already developed the online app for smart phone users, and one more "glad thing" for owners is that they can save some by firing those hour-bases-salary employees. Survey also indicates that 48% of these users have downloaded at least one retail app, with 90% reported apps useful. This data is a reminder for retailers who haven't considered the mobile apps function yet, hey! It’s not too late to do so from now!

Satisfaction level increase for online stores

              Overall, during this Thanksgiving sales season, E-commerce sales increased about 17% compare with the same period in last year, but the increase of traditional retailer's sale remain on flat. Meanwhile, Amercian shoppers' satisfaction levels with e-commerce companies and their websites have improved in the last 12 months. This is according to the latest research from Foresee Results Inc, which indicates that retail sites reached a higher satisfaction score of 73.7 for Thanksgiving holiday week this year.

              In today's struggling economy, retailers were still trying the best to provided a outstanding shopping experience to customers, such as deeper discounts, abundant merchandises, and smooth check-out processes. Many smart online retailer utilized this opportunity to gain more reputation because they had prepared enough prior to this high sales season, that helped a lot to capture available market share when other retailers and competitors fail to meet consumers' increasingly high standards and expectations.

What makes Amazon so competitive ?

          Right after Thanksgiving this year, Amazon’s shares hit an all-time high in early trading Monday as analysts predicted this online retailer would gain more market share in nearly future. So why my favorite One-stop shopping site, Amazon.com, could hold a position firmly at the top of the online retail realm, and ranking as the number one of America’s largest online retailer, as well as the UK’s top retailer for PC and home entertainment?  I believe Amazon’s biggest strength is its competitive advantages.  I am pretty sure many of you have shopped at Amazon.com, or at least visited the website once.  So you probably can find Amazon as a one-stop shopping site, which sells everything under your needs, such as: books, music, home, video games and computer software, consumer electronics, appliances, garden items, baby products, sporting goods, jewelry, watches, health and beauty products, musical instruments, clothing, and groceries, among other things.  The range of products under these categories is equally as vast; if it exists, it is likely to be found on Amazon, either from the company’s own stock, from a third party retailer(partner e-commerce companies), or from an individual user(Amazon marketplace).

          Bill Gates pointed it out in a magazine interview. He said: “I buy all my books at Amazon.com because I’m busy and it’s convenient.  They have a big selection, and they’ve been reliable”.  What Bill mentioned are some core value propositions that Amazon makes.  I made purchases at Amazon because its convenience, huge selections, excellent service, but one more thing Bill left out － of course, he don’t care about it at all － the price. Not only Moms, but also all consumers, including me are concern more about pricing benefits Amazon offers to us.  If you try to input a product name and clicking the price search icon on Nextag or Pricegrabber.com, the results most likely include Amazon’s products with competitively priced, and they are often significantly lower than the suggested retail list price.  Another pricing completive advantage Amazon owns is that it does not charge sales tax, for example, in California, since here does not have its distribution center, making its bargains even greater for me and those lucky enough to live in one of the other states without an Amazon warehouse. 

          Amazon also assists customers in making an informed decision before making a purchase.  One web technology made popular by Amazon is user reviews. Now you have experience with Amazon, and you know for each product, it provides a press review, features user reviews, and rated on a 5-star basis.  Amazon allows users to submit reviews of products sold on Amazon, which are attached to the web pages of each product. If you roll down the web-page by mouse, users' typically comments will be displayed which are about their experiences using the product and whether or not the product met expectations. So when we are considering buying a product, we definitely would love to visit the site just like Amazon, to read the abundant user reviews regardless of where we intend to make final purchase. By acting this way, Amazon encourages consumers to consider the alternatives at Amazon.com. Also, I personally admire the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos’s idea about promoting negative users’ review. He chose to take a radically different approach to reviews because as he said: "we want to make every book available – the good, the bad, and the ugly...not to let truth loose”.  I’ll bet his purpose by allowing negative reviews on site is not just like what he said in front of us.  But Amazon is able to create a community for its reviewers. Much like a social network, Amazon’s customers share their opinions amongst one another.  So this community reinforces Amazon’s commitment to transparency and buyer empowerment while increasing customer loyalty.

          If you just don’t like shop at Amazon.com, I know you must like to shop at those traditional retail stores. This preference is leading an obvious disadvantage for Amazon:  Amazon.com’s main competitive disadvantage is that it is an online exclusive retailer.  Because of this, impatient consumers, like my dad, can’t achieve the instant gratification of utilizing something the second they buy it. I am pretty sure that they really don’t want for orders to be processed and shipped.  Likewise, without brick-and-mortar locations, how could a grandma buy stuff at amazon if they even don’t know how to use the internet?  Poor credit people also need a card in order to make purchases, as Amazon has no way of accepting cash.  Other complications I heard from traditional shoppers are associated with a lack of physical retail locations include the difficulty and inconveniences of returning or exchanging an item, the risk of damage during shipping, and the inability to inspect an item, verify that it is listed correctly, and try it on before purchasing it.

          But in order to ensure its competitive advantages sustainable, Amazon is constantly seeking new business opportunities. After staying within the company's basic business model, “business to customer”, for decades, Amazon  realized that there are more potential markets to gain advantages. Blogger Scott Macaulay argues that “Amazon Studios”, the new open-source studio from the online retail behemoth, is challenging other film production firms significantly in the market; moreover, I was a little bit surprised when I place an order on Target.com because its platform looks so familiar to me.  By expanding its business model to include “business to business”, Amazon was able to sell its web services (platform) to other e-commerce companies, such as Target.com, that lacked competitive web technology and infrastructure, creating a new source of revenue for the company.

          Now that Amazon sells its web services to other e-commerce companies, you probably have some doubt that Amazon will be able to maintain its position as the absolute leader in the highly competitive e-commerce industry, especially now that competitors have access to Amazon’s technology and infrastructure.  However, think about this: Amazon’s core competitive advantage is not merely the company’s outstanding backend, but rather and more importantly, the strong customer loyalty that Amazon enjoys.  Even though other e-commerce companies are using the same IT backend as Amazon, they lack the same strong relationship with Amazon that has been built upon years of trust and outstanding service.  Because of this, Amazon made a very smart choice to diversify its corporate business, as its e-commerce model will inevitably be duplicated. Amazon will remain relevant and sustainable because its core competitive advantage transcends its innovations.

Monster.com, not only for job searching

Most University seniors visit Monster.com at least once a week. Of course, this is a E-commerce companies, but I'd rather don't want to call it "an on-line retailer" because there is no thing for customers to buy. However, this company do make a lot of money: the market cap of nearly $7 billion in 2007 and generates over $1 billion per year in revenue. All that revenue is largely generated on paid job listings, starting off at $475 for a single listing. In early November this year, Monster.com launched its Facebook page to each job seeker who wants to ask questions about job market in the US. Basically, the hottest questions were be presented to Austan Goolsbee, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisors (CEA). And then he would answer those popular questions in recorded videos.The Monster.com YouTube page now has all of Goolsbee’s answers online, including unemployment rate and small business.

Social media Vs. E-commerce

Online sales is playing an increasingly important role in total holiday sales. But how much of that growth can be attributed to social media, like a link on website such as facebook?

Blogger Paul Chaney asked Hitwise, the competitive intelligence service, how is the situation (Internet traffic) e-commerce sites was affected by social media. A spokesman for Hitwise responded via Twitter that the number was 4.39 percent for the "top 500" ecommerce sites on Black Friday. That is, according to Hitwise, social networks referred 4.39 percent of traffic to the top 500 retail sites on Black Friday 2010.

In today's informational society, not only companies are using social media to promote merchandises and deals during the sales high season, but consumers get benefits from their own purposes also. For instance, I would like to share information about some favorite products and purchases I experienced on facebook; I may also follow the recommendations from friends about products they like on twitter, and even hang out to go shopping or purchase online together with friends and family.

Cyber Monday Hit Biggest Sales Record Ever : $1B

Cyber Monday reached a record-breaking level this year with more than $1 billion dollars spent online, making it the heaviest U.S. online shopping day ever recorded. I would expect the huge E-commerce business opportunity in the future, as you can see the sales during last five years are keeping increase even though during the recession period. 

eHarmony is moving to Asia

           eHarmony.com, a leader of online dating service provider, will launch its first Asia branch in Japan recently. Blogger David Evens Worried about the differences in culture between the US and Japan, and he wonders what changes eHarmony will make in their matching systems based on 29 dimensions of compatibility for Japanese. I remember I had a presentation about the eHarmony for my Marketing class at USC. So basically, customers need to answer more than 400 questions before s/he becomes an official member, and paying 60 bucks monthly. But one of the coolest things is that eHarmony rejects 20% of its potential customers in order to guarantee their outstanding services to existing users. Expending internationally seems a necessary path for companies to be more profitable, but bases on eHarmony currently business model, I would doubt could this company survive in Japan, a country is still keeping many traditional rules toward men and women, and also a country has the lowest divorce rare in the world?

Cyber Monday Sales

            Many consumers are getting more familiar with the term "Cyber Monday" during these years. In fact, in the end of November, 2005, the term was created by "Shop.org" press which release entitled "'Cyber Monday' Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year". I believe many retailers, especially for E-commerce companies are more glad to use "Cyber Monday" as a marketing promotion to persuade people shop online after Thanksgiving "Black Friday". Now, Black Friday is not an only biggest discount event to those people waiting for a whole year. Many smart consumers know they should just be patient because more products with deeper discounts would come out after weekend. This year, Cyber Monday may have been the heaviest online spending day in history with a record-breaking $1.028 billion in online spending — a 16% jump in spending when compared against the same day last year.

New Businee opportunity

               What we usually do after turkey dinner? "Hard-working" people probably already left from home to get on line outside of shops. Many people like my family just prefer staying at home watching new-released movies. So the those movie rental companies like Netflix would be a best choice because of its fast mailing, and abundant movie resources.

               However, One market segment that Amazon has not yet penetrated is subscription video service just like Netflix. I believe Amazon should add a service where users can stream anything and everything in the Amazon catalog for a monthly or yearly fee.  Amazon already has web technology in place that allows for one time purchases or rentals of streaming movies. Currently, Amazon even offers customers the option of downloading digital copies of music and movies that they have already purchased. This service allows customers to watch films while they wait for the physical discs of movies they have ordered to be shipped. Netflix has already proven that a market exists for a subscription video service, and the Amazon name would add credibility, affordability, and value to such a service.

Black Friday - the biggest shopping day of 2010

happy thanksgiving

          Who would be happy on Thanksgiving day? Students get a long weekend holiday to hang out with friends. Employees can not wait for this day comes, so many of them leave company early on the day before thanksgiving. But the happiest groups of people could be those shoppers got big discounts on black Friday, and of course, the retailers. Amazon.com Inc. Amazon.com says that this black Friday was its biggest-ever record for sales of Kindle devices.  Company also posted on the Amazon Kindle link on Facebook page many days before that on Friday, it will sell its older, second-generation Kindle for $89, which is $10 less expensive than Best Buy. On average, online spending on Black Friday this year increased nearly 16 percent compared with last year, and The  average order value on Black Friday was $190.80, up from $170.19 last year.

E-commerce as the online dating model

The article “Take the Lid off – Secret Spending” from “Money” Magazine tells a very interesting story: some 80% of husbands and wives spent money over the past year without telling their mates. Just by guessing, we probably could figure out that women are hiding those spending for the endless fashion; men usually don’t speak out the alcohol and small appliances. However, this survey found out that husbands tend to spending more money on dating websites, and of course, they keep these secrets.

Old Navy vitual online game

             Now when youth have the uncertainty to purchase clothing from Old Navy, could use the simulated reality of a computer game to refine their dressing ideas before testing apparel in the physical stores. The retailer is very clear about their marketing strategy, and they understand what Old Navy's customers really wants. Launching this game is specifically targeting to major customers, the teenage. At the same time, Old Navy is trying to make sales by promotions and ad placements while creating impressive and enjoyable image for its merchandises offerings, especially with the thanksgiving and Christmas are coming .

             I tried the game today. As part of the game, players can lead a favorite character from movie by passing an entire Old Navy store, choosing virtual Old Navy fashion, similar to that available in-store, and socializing with other game players during the game time. The Old Navy virtual world will mirror the real world in-store experience.Users can enjoy a digital shopping spree, grabbing items for themselves and gifting virtual Old Navy fashion to their Facebook friends, if the holiday season has them feeling generous.

Amazon is not only a store

          Amazon is a very smart company, and they know how to make more money. For Amazon, revenue should not be only limited in the E-commerce model. It now wants to shift the industry back from the exclusive, private world of Hollywood, taking the movie making business to the web instead. The online retailer giant has started a film production website, in which screenwriters and filmmakers can submit scripts and movies. Amazon.com  has also partnered Warner Bros. Studios with this new venture to consider the submitted scripts for commercial feature films. Amazon.com, Inc. today launched Amazon Studios, a new online business that invites filmmakers and screenwriters around the world to submit full-length movies and scripts to make money, get discovered and get their movie made. Through the monthly and annual Amazon Studios Awards, Amazon Studios will offer a total of $2.7 million to the top submissions received by Dec. 31, 2011.

What should BlackBerry do next ?

Recently, I saw an online advertisement from AT&T, which introduced this wireless carrier is now selling a new cell phone designed by Microsoft. Looking back ten years ago, Blackberry was the absolute leader in smart phone industry. People felt so proud when they described self as a Blackberry person.  However, in nowadays, not only iphone takes big marketing shares away, but also Android from Google does so, and plus the windows phone just released recently.  In order to surpass its competitors, I think BlackBerry needs to develop applications that support enterprises and appeal to consumers.  It needs to grow quickly if it wishes to prevent Apple from capturing its current customers.  If RIM can successfully expand its applications, it can attract consumers and retain enterprises, therefore increasing its presence in the market.  BlackBerry has a reliable operating system that is more secure than Google’s Android, but consumers are not aware of it.  By drawing new buyers towards BlackBerry, consumers can experience firsthand the benefits of BlackBerry and contribute to the company’s reputation and popularity.   

BlackBerry should continue expanding to new global markets in order to increase customer base and to stay ahead of competitors such as Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone.  BlackBerry would be successful in areas where there are limited bandwidth markets and Internet access.

Netflix: Packing DVDs at lightning speed!

That's why we got favorite movies so fast....

E-commerce sales Increase 13.7% in Q3

             According to estimates released recently by the U.S. Commerce Department, during the third quarter of this year, total sales of E-commerce industry increased nearly 13.7% compare to the same period a year ago. The total sales captured 4.2% of national retail sales, a new record for e-commerce.  "Cost conscious consumers also see online shopping as a way to spend wisely," writes Grau in an upcoming report. "They can go to coupon sites and shopping blogs and communities to learn about bargains. They can also research purchases to find cheaper alternatives."
             The 13.7% growth rate for e-commerce sales also is more than double that of total retail sales, which posted 6.0% growth during the third quarter. The U.S. Commerce Department estimates seasonally adjusted total retail sales during the third quarter were $978.73 billion. “The data underscores yet again the secular shift from offline to online spending,” says Colin Sebastian, an analyst for Lazard Capital Markets. “Despite some lingering macro-level hesitation on consumer spending, e-commerce companies should feel good about this year and the return to growth.”