Endless Bad News for Gap
It’s been so recent since I last blogged, my coffee is still hot!
“Dude, what’s up? You go silent for weeks, then you start pumping out blog posts. Dude, wtf?!”
In response I say “Dude, you are right. My bad. A tear rolls down my rugged cheek.”
As if things could not get any worse for Gap…things have actually become worse!
1) More executives are leaving. To me, this comes as MAJOR surprise. Based on the way the company has been running, I was entirely convinced that weren’t any executives in the first place!
2) There is more. Amazon.com, I tiny online retailer, based out of the small hick town of Seattle, has opened up their own Shoe and Handbag website. Everyone, please meet endless.com.
I am slightly congested in my nasal region, yet I can still smell the looming corpse of Piperlime.com.
Zappos.com, which also sells handbags in addition to a billion pairs of shoes each day, should be mildly concerned. Amazon.com is not someone you want to compete with.
However, Endless.com offers FREE OVERNIGHT SHIPPING. Read that again. No kidding. Plus there is free returns as well.
Back in the day when I was knee-deep in the ecommerce universe, I constantly argued that overnight shipping would be a wise choice. Why? Because it makes online shopping not just more convenient, but it also decreases the time advantage of the physical store.
When I shop, I went it ASAP. Yesterday! If I don’t need something, I am not buying it. (most of the time 
However, my biggest vice with only shopping is the delay of receipt.
Endless.com practically eliminates this issue. You can buy your shoe and and eat it too! (Eat it as in wear it….)
So Zappos and the other shoe sites are monitoring this development very closely. Trust me. I know these things.
But for Gap, which has not done anything right since…I don’t even recall…endless.com just means they have another big thing to worry about.
Stay tuned. I might be working on a Gap YouTube clip…
January 11th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Yes, I think endless.com hits Piperlime especially hard. However Piperlime did start an affiliate program yesterday, so that may help with reach a bit, but Piperlime is really nothing special, while Endless has free overnight and is pleasing to shop at.
January 12th, 2007 at 11:17 am
[…] Anyways, yesterday, after a long dry-spell of blog-relief, I wrote about the new shoe and handbag site from Amazon.com. The site is called endless.com. […]
February 13th, 2007 at 10:07 am
It’ll be a cold day in Hades when the employees of Amazon.com could approach the customer service ethic and actual performance of Zappos.com’s team.
The individual efforts of the several competent Amazon support members that do exist won’t be sufficient. That’s unless Amazon starts empowering them to actually CARE about the customer.
I won’t hold my breath.
For those of you who aren’t aware yet, Zappos.com’s corporate culture is now being studied and discussed in MBA programs as the newest model of serving both the internal and external customer, much as Nordstrom had been in previous years.
April 19th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
[…] My friend, Shumly (another avid shoe lover), keeps me up-to-date on the new shoe site sagas, namely Piperlime.com and Endless.com. Piperlime is a division of Gap, Inc. Whereas Endless is the love child of Amazon.com. Both are sure to give Zappos a run for the money. But I think there are plenty of shoe addicts (and more getting online everyday) for them all to play nicely. • • Permalink • Leave a Comment » […]