Wow, so Amazon are buying Zappos. Raises lots of questions, but this might also be an incredibly smart move.
Questions first – Jeff Bezos engages in the YouTube video (above) to announce the move, Tony Hsieh an email to his company. Funny, a bit of table turning there.
One wonders whether this is really what Tony Hsieh wanted, and for how much longer he’ll stay - even as both sides claim that everything Zappos will remain as it was. From everything I’ve read, I’m pretty certain his ambition wasn’t to grow the business and then sell it.
The possibilities however are fascinating. Combine Zappos customer service ethos and social media nous with the Amazon infrastructure and customer base, and you have possibly the most innovative large retail group in the world.
It also begs the question of whether Amazon will choose to make more acquisitions, building a series of powerful retail brands that all draw from the same core technology, data and warehousing infrastructure.
For the competitors, this could be frightening, but for customers we just might be seeing some fascinating new experiences ahead. I watch with great interest.
(Paul Worthington)