Zappos: Everything you need to know

Zappos.com was born out of frustration. It's a situation we've all been in, buying shoes for ourselves but discovering the store doesn't have the right size. This is exactly what happened to Zappos founder Nick Swinmurn in 1999. Wandering around a shopping mall in San Francisco, he became so annoyed that he could not find the shoes he wanted in the right size and colour, that he quit his day job and started an online shoe retailer.

Nick was surprised to discover that while there were many online stores selling shoes, there wasn't a major site that specialised solely (no pun intended) on footwear. His vision was to create a website that would offer the best range of shoes in terms of brands, colours, styles and sizes. It is a vision that has served the company well, with Zappos becoming a multimillion dollar empire over the past decade.

Much of this can be attributed to CEO Tony Hsieh , who first became involved with Zappos as an investor and a part time advisor.

Hsieh sold his first business, LinkExchange, to Microsoft for $265million in 1998 at a mere 24 years old and quickly became involved with several other online firms. At Zappos however, he found a unique idea that no-one else seemed to be investing in. Joining as a CEO in 2000, Hsieh has taken the retailer from an annual turnover of $1.6 million to over $1 billion.

Hsieh's secret? Focusing on fantastic customer service.

By only employing people that are as passionate about the firm as he is, Hsieh has built up a team that not only has the right technical skills, but also the right 'cultural fit'.

The company's HR department regularly throws wacky questions into interviews such as "What is your theme song?" to find the right person for the right job.

Zappos's dedication to customer service quickly found a loyal customer base and today it is the largest online retailer in America. It is no surprise then that Amazon feels they could benefit from Zappos's popularity, especially as the company sold about $1 billion of gross merchandise sales last year.

Despite paying $928 million for Zappos, Amazon has stated that it will allow the shoe retailer to continue running its business as it always has.

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