Zappos Blog
blogs.zappos.com · Company blog · on HN since 2008
The Zappos company blog, with posts from CEO Tony Hsieh on company culture, the sale to Amazon, and business lessons from poker.
What HN saysHN links it as a primary source, notably the CEO's letter to employees about the Amazon sale, which commenters read for details on the board and Sequoia.
18HN people shared it
5linked it in comments
14stories submitted
533story points
11 years agolast shared
2008people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Tony Hsieh's Email to Employees RE: Zappos' Sale to Amazon4 people · 221 points · first shared 2009 · 32 comments on HN
- 2Your Culture Is Your Brand2 people · 17 points · first shared 2009 · 2 comments on HN
- 36pm.com's 1.6 million dollar pricing mistake1 people · 138 points · first shared 2010 · 80 comments on HN
- 4The Man Who Sold Hot Dogs1 people · 50 points · first shared 2008 · 19 comments on HN
- 5Everything I Know About Business I Learned From Poker1 people · 34 points · first shared 2008 · 27 comments on HN
- 6Zappos responds to Andrew Wilkinson's "You're Killing Me Zappos" letter1 people · 32 points · first shared 2009 · 13 comments on HN
- 7Poker, Business, and Life: It's Never Too Late to Change Tables1 people · 14 points · first shared 2008 · 3 comments on HN
- 8Zappos CEO on how Twitter has made him a better person1 people · 12 points · first shared 2009 · 6 comments on HN
- 9Zappos: Security Email1 people · 7 points · first shared 2012 · 1 comments on HN
- 10Top 10 lessons in e-commerce, by the CEO of Zappos.com1 people · 3 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
- 11Zappos CEO: Top 10 lessons learned in e-commerce.1 people · 2 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
- 12Zappos staff reactions on company blog post after hearing about 10% salary bonus1 people · 2 points · first shared 2013 · 2 comments on HN
- 13Zappos turns over Kentucky operations warehouse to Amazon1 people · 1 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 14Holiday helpers1 people · first shared 2014
- 15Day 5611 people · first shared 2008
What HN people wrote when they linked it
JadeNB · 2015-05-28
So many places have great return policies, so it doesn't really matter anymore …. http://www.zappos.com/ is a good example.
Of course it doesn't undermine your point, but it's worth noting that this is not a fundamentally different example to Amazon; Zappos is, at least in a sense, part of the Amazon empire (http://blogs.zappos.com/ceoletter). To be fair, they did have the same great return policies before the acquisition / merger / whatever.
(Another example of a fantastic return policy, in a rather different domain, is REI's (http://www.rei.com/help/return-policy.html). It used to be even better—lifetime, or maybe just 10 years?—but my understanding is that people would take ridiculous advantage of it.)
jamie · 2009-07-23
What's striking to me is that the CEO letter mentions Moritz directly.
I'm sure this isn't the last we'll hear of this story.
> We asked our board members what they thought of the opportunity. Michael
> Moritz, who represents Sequoia Capital (one of our investors and board
> members), wrote the following: "You now have the opportunity to accelerate
> Zappos' progress and to make the name and the brand and everything associated
> with it an enduring, permanent part of peoples' lives... You are now free to
> let your imagination roam - and to contemplate initiatives and undertakings
> that today, in our more constrained setting, we could not take on."
http://blogs.zappos.com/ceoletter
> At least two sources who do not hold board seats, but are directly involved
> with Zappos, indicated that Moritz and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh came into
> conflict about the company’s future. Moritz, the sources say, wanted Zappos to
> sell while Hsieh wanted to remain independent.
http://www.pehub.com/45388/zappos-ceo-wanted-to-stay-independent-sequo…
bcx · 2014-04-16
I've seen it done at on-boarding with companies like Freshbooks and Zappos, but I am not sure how often that experience is renewed. (i.e. the rotation aspect being more than one time)
Engineers at Zappos do support for just a few hours a year doing peak season after that onboarding. With a program called "Holiday Helpers" - http://blogs.zappos.com/blogs/zappos-family/2011/12/20/holiday-helpers
smhinsey · 2009-07-22
Here's the CEO's letter to employees, which has a little more info: http://blogs.zappos.com/ceoletter
unalone · 2008-11-13
Permanent link: http://blogs.zappos.com/blogs/coach/2008/11/12/day-561