Zappos and Web Analytics

Zappos

            Zappos is one of the most successful ecommerce websites.  In 1999, founder Nick Swinmurn was shoe shopping at his local mall and could not find anything that was the right style, color or size.  After an unsuccessful day of shopping, he went home and went online to try and find a website that sold shoes.  After searching online, he did not find anything that met his needs and that’s when Zappos was created.  Zappos was created to sell every style, color and size of shoe and offer free shipping.  Since buying shoes online can be difficult, they also offer free return shipping with 365 days of the original purchase (“In the beginning,” 014) .  Today, Zappos not only sells shoes, but also clothing and housewares.  Zappos has been able to successfully grow their business because of their focus on customer service.  Zappos is known for their excellent customer service and their ability to create brand loyalty.  When Zappos first began, word of mouth was their number one marketing tool followed by online advertising. 

            Zappos uses their website as their number one marketing tool.  On their website, there are multiple blogs from the CEO, employees and interns.  They also have testimonials from previous buyers about Zappos’ products and more importantly how great their customer service is. 

SEO and Keywords

            Along with using their website as a marketing tool, Zappos also uses search engine marketing. Zappos buys generic words such as “shoes” and also brand terms such as “Clarks” through Google and other search engines. Using web analytics, Zappos tracks sales from each keyword to determine which are the most effective and convert the most sales (Queensbury, 2010).

            Zappos also offers an Associates Program, which allows websites to add a text link or banner to their website that advertises Zappos’ shoes.  Each associate in turn earns referral fees if that link converts in to a sale. In 2010, the referral fee was 12% and an associate can make about $12 per referral.  Zappos makes this program easy for the associates and all they have to do is choose a banner and link it straight to its homepage or recommend specific shoes or a search box for Zappos shoes on their website (Queensbury, 2010).   

            Through their blogs, Zappos also gets great search engine optimization.  They have a corporate blog, which gives an insider view to the company’s culture and this helps with SEO.  This blog also is also a place for customers to provide feedback and help Zappos create a better website.

Email Marketing

            Zappos uses email marketing for retention programs and sends out emails about new styles and new brands that are available.  They have a general newsletter that covers everything about shoes, but they also have emails that customers can sign up for that are different targeted lists that fit their interests.  For example, if a customer is looking for a certain shoe or size and it is unavailable, they can sign up to receive an email for when that product will be available to them (Queensbury, 2010). These emails allow Zappos to collect more data on their customers.  

Targeted Ads

            Zappos has targeted ads for its customers who shop on their site. Demery, 2012 says, “But Zappos, which has built a reputation for a high level of customer service, prefers not to get too personal in the way it markets to customers, he adds. Instead, it will take analytics data it gathers about what customers view on Zappos.com and ‘dumb it down’ through its product recommendation engine to pitch ads for a general range of products a consumer is likely to buy.” Zappos uses analytics data to show customers what other products they might like, but they try to keep it simple and not to upset their customers. Since 75 percent of their clients are repeat customers, it is important that continue to focus on customer service and not offend their customers.

Social Media Analytics

            Zappos is also very active on Facebook and Pinterest and have a strong presence on both social networking sites.  After completing a sale, the customer has the option of sharing their purchase on their Facebook or Pinterest page.  Zappos also utilizes advertising on Facebook and uses data and analytics collected from Facebook to find new audiences.  Zappos’ Facebook marketing lead, Nate Luman says “As a marketer focused on driving Web traffic through Facebook paid ads, I am constantly trying to discover new audiences to target. Tools like XA.net’s OptimalKeyword look for fan pages with overlapping Facebook users. Fan-page engagement data isn’t as important to me as it is for the folks on my team focused on community management. I have a hard time suggesting to ignore any Facebook data without first testing to see if it is relevant to your business. Just don’t get caught up in doing it because you can.” Facebook offers a lot of data and analytics to marketers and it is important to find which data is most useful for your site.  Zappos understands how to use this data and how to use it to drive more traffic to their website. Zappos sees a 3.5:1 ROI on paid Facebook advertisements.
“If we were to look at Facebook ads on their own, a 3.5 ROI is not sustainable and is well below our overall direct-marketing program’s ROI expectations. But when we consider where Facebook ads fall in the sales funnel and compare them to similar marketing efforts (mainly category-head search terms), they deliver similar performance, fuel other channels (drive long-tail search and comparison-shopping queries), and are one of our best marketing channels for driving new customers.” (Abramovich, 2012).

Improvements for Zappos

            I believe Zappos does a great job of utilizing analytics from both their website and social media pages. They are a great ecommerce website to study because they do so many things right. With customer service being their number one focus, they always keep it a priority even when using analytics. They understand the importance of analytics, yet they also understand the importance of not infringing on their customers’ privacy.

            Through email marketing, social media marketing and search engine marketing, Zappos collects data and analytics from all three of these sources about their customers.  With that data, Zappos focuses on making their website better and easier to use for their customers. 

References

Abramovich, G. (2012, June 28). How zappos makes $3.50 per $1 spent on facebook ads. Retrieved from http://digiday.com/brands/how-zappos-makes-3-50-per-1-spent-on-facebook-ads/

Demery, P. (2012, Octover 19). How zappos balances privacy and targeted ads. Retrieved from http://www.internetretailer.com/2012/10/19/how-zappos-balances-privacy-and-targeted-ads

In the beginning let there be shoes. (2014). Retrieved from http://about.zappos.com/zappos-story/in-the-beginning-let-there-be-shoes

Queensbury, K. (2010, March 23). Walk a mile in zappos’ new media shoes. Retrieved from http://addingtonoise.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/walk-a-mile-in-zappos-new-media-shoes/