My wife and I ordered our baby formula for about a year or so from diapers.com, no complaints. They even re-shipped a furniture tie that we thought they missed (it turned out we misplaced it - they said don't bother with sending the extra one back).
Diapers.com's customer focus is slightly different than Zappos - eventually at some point in time Diapers.com's present customers will no longer have any reason to continue shopping there (it's true for us today - we don't need anything from Diapers.com), whereas Zappos can potentially sell you shoes for a lifetime.
As an aside, I personally find purchases clothing (including shoes) online in the not-quite-right category. How can you ascertain the fit and aesthetic of a shirt or a shoe without actually holding it in your hand or trying it on?
Even though Diapers.com's customers "cycle-out" after their kids grow up, I think the potential lies in the advisory aspect in their word of mouth (i.e. brothers and sisters, friends, co-workers who are expecting kids/have them). People are always having kids or know someone who is.
In regards to purchasing clothing online, there are some startups making inroads in that category--Fits.me, the one that won the European startup competition, Plugg, comes to mind.
"Diapers.com's customer focus is slightly different than Zappos - eventually at some point in time Diapers.com's present customers will no longer have any reason to continue shopping there (it's true for us today - we don't need anything from Diapers.com), whereas Zappos can potentially sell you shoes for a lifetime."
I am now approaching the one year mark with new twins, and I will have spent more on diapers and other baby supplies than I will spend on shoes in the next 20 years. I generally buy 2 pairs of ~$50 shoes a year, but I spend >$100 on diapers, wipes, bottles, etc. every month. And the stroller -- my mid-level, non-fancy double stroller was $200.
Other families that space out their children spend thousands of dollars over the course of 4-6 years. If they're happy, they'll be loyal. They'll tell the other parents they know about the site (parents do love to talk about such things). I can see how this will be amazingly successful. People seem to be spending more than ever on their children, too.
They're even wondering whether a self-help online customer service module might drive down overall loyalty and LTV if it drops the number of customer call ins considerably.
My wife is a "LT customer" of diapers.com, and this line made me think back to why: it was because they once shipped the wrong item in place of what we ordered.
When my wife called up the service line, she was surprised at how quickly they helped her out, that they overnighted the correct item, and that they didn't ask for the wrong item to be returned. Considering that I imagine that "ship the right items" is one of the first things a business like this would get right, and that (the LTV of a customer) > (overnight cost of baby cream), could it be that the mistake was intentional?
Highly doubtful, but interesting thought. Talking to the guys at Diapers.com, they want their customers to be happy the first time around. On the off chance they're not, they want them to be absolutely delighted the second time. I'm also pretty sure that the extra cost incurred by including the "mistake item" as well as knowing you're discretely increasing demands on customer service might make the customer acquisition cost not worth the lifetime value.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 26.7 ms ] threadDiapers.com's customer focus is slightly different than Zappos - eventually at some point in time Diapers.com's present customers will no longer have any reason to continue shopping there (it's true for us today - we don't need anything from Diapers.com), whereas Zappos can potentially sell you shoes for a lifetime.
As an aside, I personally find purchases clothing (including shoes) online in the not-quite-right category. How can you ascertain the fit and aesthetic of a shirt or a shoe without actually holding it in your hand or trying it on?
In regards to purchasing clothing online, there are some startups making inroads in that category--Fits.me, the one that won the European startup competition, Plugg, comes to mind.
I am now approaching the one year mark with new twins, and I will have spent more on diapers and other baby supplies than I will spend on shoes in the next 20 years. I generally buy 2 pairs of ~$50 shoes a year, but I spend >$100 on diapers, wipes, bottles, etc. every month. And the stroller -- my mid-level, non-fancy double stroller was $200.
Other families that space out their children spend thousands of dollars over the course of 4-6 years. If they're happy, they'll be loyal. They'll tell the other parents they know about the site (parents do love to talk about such things). I can see how this will be amazingly successful. People seem to be spending more than ever on their children, too.
My wife is a "LT customer" of diapers.com, and this line made me think back to why: it was because they once shipped the wrong item in place of what we ordered.
When my wife called up the service line, she was surprised at how quickly they helped her out, that they overnighted the correct item, and that they didn't ask for the wrong item to be returned. Considering that I imagine that "ship the right items" is one of the first things a business like this would get right, and that (the LTV of a customer) > (overnight cost of baby cream), could it be that the mistake was intentional?