Blog 183 talked about when Zappos.com July 15 1999. In this blog I want to talk about  when Zappos moves to 1000 Van Ness.

Zappos was trending in the right direction at the end of 1999 despite slow sales. Customer acquisition was high but growing.  In order for Venture Frogs to be closer to the day to day business Tony decides to move the Emeryville office to his Penthouse in San Francisco. Shortly after, they moved into an office space downstairs at 1000 Van Ness.

First Wow letter of record

The first “wow” letter of record was received in January 2000. This customer was informed of her delivery status a few different times and was sent a Zappos t-shirt for a delay. She stated she’s was “wowed” which eventually became a core value and the mantra of the company “deliver wow with service”

Shoe Pavilion joins the other 3 retailers to provide more selection to the site. This company was pretty big in the Bay Area and was growing rapidly as well. At this time the focus was on having the best selection and would eventually shift to service once that was achieved.

First Warehouse

The first warehouse Zappos had was set up above the office. It held about 4,000 pairs of shoes and the first inventory received was by Airwalk. A small retail store was also set up and ran out of the lobby. Average sales were about 2 pairs a day. People would take turns running the store.

The site itself was updated in October to better serve the customers and sales reached 1.6 million end of year