Zappos - advice and inspiration

First, some advice on buying shoes from Zappos.

Zappos has a really impressive return policy - "free shipping both ways" as well as 365 days to return stuff. So, when buying stuff from them take advantage of it and buy a couple different sizes - get the 7, 7 1/2 and the 8. That helps reduce the annoyance that shoe sizes are so inconsistent.

Now for inspiration.

I would think that shoes would firmly fall into the category of things you "just can't sell on the net." They don't have rigerous standards like sizing and styles. And your typical shoe shopper wants to actually try them on to see how they fit and feel.

So what did Zappos do? They leverage what the net is good at (massive inventory, price, reviews, etc.) and mitigate the other issues with policies that are nice and generous.

It's a simple recipie - yet still impressive when done well. And they do it well.

--Ben