One of the latest pieces of conversation around the Twittersphere and blogosphere has been the acquisition of online footwear (, etc.) merchant Zappos by online behemoth Amazon.com. Zappos, known for their unique culture and unrelenting devotion to their customers, has understandably faced a pile of scrutiny and doubt over the future of the Zappos way of business. Even if Zappos remains an independently-run entity from Amazon, how could they possibly maintain the culture they’ve worked so hard to achieve?
Instead, I’d like to propose a different theory. Amazon’s already attempted to venture into the world of customer-focused service – in the shoe business, no less – with their own Endless.com. Although Amazon’s customer service reputation has generally improved as the company matures, they don’t hold a candle (or throw a shoe at, if you will) the CS credibility held by Zappos. What if Amazon intends to use Zappos as a model for a new, company-wide customer service philosophy?
What do you think? Could Amazon pull off the Zappos culture? Is that business philosophy even feasible in a company of Amazon’s diversity and size? How could they make that happen (and make it work)?
