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If my mom, my dad, my Aunt Mary, or anyone under the age of 60 actually read blogs beyond the Huffington Post, I would be worried that this post would blow my Christmas surprise, but I think I’m safe. I just ordered $2K worth of shoes for them from Zappos. I bought everyone multiple pairs and figured they’d get to keep one and that would be their present.

It’s not the down economy that is making me buy my relatively affluent relatives new shoes for Christmas. Nor do they “need” new shoes, per se. It’s that a) I’m a working mom and have NO time to shop anyplace but online and b) my favorite online shopping site is Zappos. I love the richness of the customer reviews, which help me feel like I’ve hit on just the thing for mom’s size 5 narrows, dad’s size 11 wides, and Aunt Mary’s bunions. I love the wide selection, so I can get a couple backup pairs. I love the free shipping both ways policy, and the well- engineered returns process, which makes buying from them so painless that the only shoes I’ve purchased elsewhere in the last 5 years have been bike shoes and Campers, neither of which they carry (I blame this on Camper). What also strikes me, after reading literally hundred of reviews of shoes in pursuit of the pair that will alleviate Aunt Mary’s suffering, is how almost EVERY review, whatever it says about the shoes, has to mention how great Zappos is. Here’s a random sampling of the Twitter stream:

just signed up for to be a Zappos VIP - free overnight shipping “till the cows come home!” yay!
less than 30 minutes ago
Kids Nike Skeet Jr. !! JUST MY SIZE!!! http://zeta.zappos.com/product/7416570/color/150475
less than 30 minutes ago
I did indeed sign up for Zappos VIP :) I have a pair of boots I’d like… will have to try it after next paycheck
less than 30 minutes ago
roxyyo, @jbillingsley, Great tip on adding live chat to 404 pages. We’re adding it to our Zappos Zeta 404 page: http://zeta.zappos.com/show
less than 30 minutes ago
zappos really is un-frickin-real in their access to consumers. Serious kudos to you guys for re-defining customer care
about 1 hour ago

Zappos is doing a great job of active listening- they have listened to what customers wanted and proactively given it to them, from free shipping to live chat on 404 pages. It seems like a cool place to work though I’m not sure how successful they will be in commoditizing their way of doing business. But compare this to Target, which also has great merchandise and where I actually began my holiday shopping journey:

• Items recommended for Christmas were not available to ship for 2-4 weeks (Um, it’s December 17)
• 7 out of my 8 items were eligible for free shipping, but the eighth one wasn’t, so they wanted to charge me shipping for the whole cart (Um, I PUT some of those things in only because they had free shipping)
• When I tried to find a place to complain, I got a web form. Really makes me feel the love.

Apparently I’m not the only one feeling a lack of love these days: Why ban mobile price checking? And check out this random dip into the Twitter stream for Target. Where is the customer joy?

while wearing a red sweater at target, a fellow customer asked me for help.
less than 15 minutes ago
Has to go to target before work to replace the christmas lights he broke last night.
less than 15 minutes ago
DealNews: Battery-Operated 4-Piece Flickering Tealight Candles for $14 + free shipping: Target offers t.. http://tinyurl.com/5cjpbn
less than 15 minutes ago
heading to target
less than 15 minutes ago
here’s my thing though…i need to stop at target to get a few finishing touches to my gift for my boss tomorrow.
Stupid Target.
less than 30 minutes ago
never going to Target in Newbury Park again… yuck.
less than 30 minutes ago

I’m just sorry to hear that Zappos, like so many other internet companies, in this down economy, trimmed their team. Hope it doesn’t erode the CS that has their customers constantly reviewing, blogging and tweeting about them.

Merry Christmas Zappos - you got my whole holiday budget.

PS: The new shopping interface is a definite improvement, but still needs some work. CALL ME!