Uitgelicht:

It powers those stories in two key ways: experiences and “brag tags.” The brag tags are a collection of creative “I HEART ZAPPOS” badges for bloggers who write testimonials about their Zappos experiences—testimonials that are collected and stored in a special fan section of the website.

Of the thousands of Zappos stories floating around the web, one of the best is from Zaz Lamarr. She had intended to return some shoes to Zappos, but when her mom passed away, she just didn’t have time:

“When I came home this last time, I had an email from Zappos asking about the shoes, since they hadn’t received them. I was just back and not ready to deal with that, so I replied that my mom had died but that I’d send the shoes as soon as I could. They emailed back that they had arranged with UPS to pick up the shoes, so I wouldn’t have to take the time to do it myself. I was so touched. That’s going against corporate policy.

Yesterday, when I came home from town, a florist delivery man was just leaving. It was a beautiful arrangement in a basket with white

lilies and roses and carna- tions. Big and lush and fra- grant. I opened the card, and it was from Zappos. I burst into tears. I’m a suck- er for kindness, and if that isn’t one of the nicest things I’ve ever had happen to me, I don’t know what is.”