RelatedPosts
Confirmed today on SportsSourceOne.com, (http://www.sportsonesource.com/news/article_home.asp?Prod=1§ion=9&id=28967), Amazon.com will purchase Zappos.com. Per the story, Tony Hsieh, the founder, should realize $200 million-not a bad day at the office.
Note that Zappos.com did sales just north of $650 million in 2008, up from $526 million in 2007. Zappos sells all types of footwear, but has done quite well on running footwear.
Zappos.com showed that good service, great pricing, matters to many. Note that their margins did drop significantly this year. The discussions with Amazon.com and Zappos.com date back to 2005, per the Sports Source article.
What still has not surfaced is a way for independent running retailers to take advantage of their expertise and ability to combine a brick and mortar establishment with an online sales system that gives running stores a real web presence.
For more on the sport of running, please clickhttp://www.runningnetwork.com