Nick Swinmurn: A man with a plan

For most of us, when we can't find the shoes we want, we give up, go home and sulk. Not so with Nick Swinmurn. In 1999, after spending an hour wandering around a shopping mall in San Francisco, unable to find the shoes he wanted, Nick simply went home and began work on starting his own company -Zappos.com, currently the largest online supplier of shoes in America.

Graduating from college in 1996, Nick worked at several jobs trying to find his niche. He served as a group-ticket salesman for the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball and then later as a sales manager for a successful Net-based automotive retailer. After his experience though, Nick envisioned a website that would offer the best possible selection of shoes with a full range of styles, colours, brands and sizes - so he quit his job to focus on his brain child.

He quickly discovered that footwear industry is a US$40-billion business and that in 1999, mail order already accounted for five percent of sales.

Raising US$150,000 in initial capital from friends and family, Nick went out to pursue his dream quickly snaring Fred Mossler, a shoe buyer from Nordstrom - the shoe department store. Once Nick had persuaded Mossler to come on board, other firms soon followed. However, it was the input of online entrepreneur Tony Hsieh that really jumped started the company. Fresh from the success of selling his company LinkExchange to Microsoft for US$270 million, Hsieh was the perfect investor, though he recently admitted he almost deleted Nick's initial email.

Choosing to focus on customer service to ensure repeat purchases, Zappos.com prospered and today it is one of the world's best online retailer of shoes with 1,300 employees and more than 3 million shoes, handbags, clothing items and accessories from over 1,136 brands. It is no wonder then that Amazon has decide to join with them, instead of attempting to beat them.

In a deal worth an estimated US$927.9 million and the ability to work as a separate entity free of the Amazon brand, it is a good day for Zappos for Nick Swinmurn and Tony Hsieh. And to think it started with being unable to find the right pair of shoes...

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