This is the first part of two-case series of Zappos's blue ocean strategic move as an innovative online shoe retailer. Part A focuses on how Zappos reconstructed the existing boundaries of the online footwear retail industry. It describes Zappos's distinctive value proposition that is neither an offline nor online shoe store in the conventional sense. The case also introduces how Zappos broke the value-cost trade-off of the conventional online shoe store. The case comes with a theory-based video case, which can be obtained from https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/teaching-materials/zappos
Participants will learn how to create a blue ocean in Case A, and how to execute blue ocean strategy in Case B.
- Value innovation
- Blue ocean strategy
- Value creation
- Online retail
- Information Technology
- Zappos
- Strategy execution
- Market reconstruction
- Footwear industry
- Strategy
- Competition
- Q21213
