Mother and Child website Zulily One of the slowest delivery internet companies

Absrtact: May 7 News, the United States mother and child supplies Flash purchase website Zulily is not only the fastest growing speed, but also is one of the slowest delivery of internet companies. Zulily always need the average two to be able to send goods to customers. With this practice-shaped

May 7 News, the United States mother and child supplies Flash purchase site zulily is not only the fastest growing speed, but also the fastest delivery of the internet companies one of the slowest.

Zulily always need the average two to be able to send goods to customers. In stark contrast to this approach, established E-commerce companies such as Amazon and ShopRunner have begun offering two-day service to users.

Zulily need a very long delivery time, because of the very simple delivery system, so that the establishment of only four years of e-commerce companies in the fierce competition, some of the peers in the plight of the situation to achieve profitability. But delays in shipments have not only disappointed consumers and complained, but also prompted investors to worry about whether the Seattle innovation company could expand as they had expected.

Wall Street has been pinning its hopes on selling zulily children and women's clothing, toys and kitchen supplies. Since the IPO last November, Zulily's share price has risen by more than one times to $47.27 trillion. But as investors ' enthusiasm for tech stocks has waned, Zulily's current share price has been much lower than the $73.50 trillion history of February.

According to the closing price of the 47.35 dollar in Friday, Zulily's market capitalisation was $5.9 billion trillion. Given that Zulily's sales are expected to exceed $1.1 billion trillion this year, the market capitalisation is clearly on the high side. Zulily will release its first-quarter results after the U.S. securities market closed in Tuesday. Market analysts are currently predicting that Zulily will receive more than 80% per cent of the revenue over a year earlier. The surge in zulily revenues has been driven by the ability to allow female users to regularly browse the company's transactions and allow consumers to actively participate in the company's discount deals. Zulily had previously said that 3.2 million users had completed a transaction at least on the company's website last year, a year-on-year increase of 219 dollars for users on the Zulily site.

Electronic Business Site Delivery schedule

But shipping issues could be the only Achilles ' heel of zulily. Last year, after a consumer placed an order, it took an average of 11.5 days for the zulily to ship from the storage center. This does not include the time it takes for the goods to be delivered from the storage center to the customer's hands. Why: Because Zulily does not buy the vast majority of products sold in advance. Instead, the company ordered the product from the supplier after the deal ended. The supplier then delivers the whole shipment to one or two storage centers in Zulily, then zulily the products and sends them to the other products ordered by the customer.

"This approach is more efficient," said Bob Spieth, chief operating officer of Zulily, Bob Spith. He added that the practice would help the company "control the consumer experience." "Zulily does not accept returns. He says the "small inventory" business model allows Zulily to take on discounted goods that sell more than 10,000 suppliers.

But this approach has its own limitations. In February of this year, zulily sales of TOMS shoes have defaulted orders, leading some consumers to wait 4-6 weeks before acquiring the products they ordered. In response to complaints from buyers on the Zulily Facebook page, the company representative said the main reason for the delay was that too many orders caused the warehouse center to be unable to afford it.

Angela Kim, a 34-year-old housewife at Lynn Wood in Washington, said she had Angela the Toms shoe order after waiting 5 weeks. But at the same time as she received a refund, she received a 10-dollar voucher from Zulily. The user said, "They have promised to ship within a certain period of time, but the delay for a longer period of time, said the delay in the delivery is purely unexpected." I'm going crazy and don't want to wait. ”

Angela said that in the past year, she frequently shopped on the Zulily website, usually from the place order to receive the goods need to wait three weeks time, purchase crocs, Spanx and other popular products, the waiting time usually more than 1 months time. Angela will still be browsing the zulily deal, but she won't be shopping on the site as often as she used to.

Daniel Hilly Danielle Healy, another old zulily client, said she had purchased children's sneakers from the site early this February. She expects to receive the goods in three weeks and give them to her sons as a birthday present. But by mid-March this year, she was informed that one of the shoes was out of stock and could not be shipped to her. So she canceled the order and bought two pairs of shoes from ebay at twice times the price, allowing her children to get the birthday gift they wanted. "How do you feel about saving 15 dollars and waiting for 6 weeks?" said Healy. ”

"There is a lot of change in the company's business," Spith said of the delay in TOMS shoes. He says the company has been automating upgrades to two storage centers in Ohio and Nevada, allowing them to process more inventory more quickly. "We've been focusing on improving speed and efficiency," Spith said. ”

Zulily executives believe that the vast majority of buyers who visit the site are not looking for goods to be acquired in the short term, so they are usually willing to wait for a longer time. Darel Carvins, Darrell Cavens, Zulily chief executive, said Zulily had been trying to reduce delivery times, but not at the expense of reducing the ability to offer unique products and deals.

"Zulily growth will stagnate," said Mark Mahaney, an analyst at RBC Capital CMC, an investment company. For other E-commerce companies chasing service on the next day, they are simply not concerned with the business model of extended delivery time. ”