Zulily, LLC is an American

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

company headquartered in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

and owned by Qurate Retail Group. Its target audience is young mothers interested in brand-name goods for their children. It holds no inventory, instead consolidating shipments of vendor-owned merchandise at its fulfillment centers, or

drop shipping Drop shipping is a form of retail business where the seller accepts customer orders without keeping stock on hand. Instead, in a form of supply chain management, the seller transfers the orders and their shipment details either to the manufactur ...

directly to customers. Zulily offers different discounts each day. In 2014, half of Zulily's orders came from mobile devices. Sales generally last 72 hours. that sells clothing, footwear, toys, infant gear and home products.

History

Zulily was founded in 2009 by former

Blue Nile The Blue Nile (; ) is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. It travels for approximately through Ethiopia and Sudan. Along with the White Nile, it is one of the two major tributaries of the Nile and supplies about 85.6% of the water ...

executives Mark Vadon and

Darrell Cavens Darrell Cavens (born 1972) is an executive who was the co-founder and former CEO of the e-commerce company Zulily, which was acquired by QVC in 2015 for $2.6 billion.Serena Ng"QVC Buying Online Shopping Site Zulily,"''The Wall Street Journal'', Au ...

after Vadon's wife had become pregnant, and he was overwhelmed by the process of acquiring the supplies they had not been aware of needing. Zulily went live on January 27, 2010, with an initial focus on children's apparel. By the fourth quarter of 2010, Zulily was a

cash-flow A cash flow is a real or virtual movement of money: *a cash flow in its narrow sense is a payment (in a currency), especially from one central bank account to another; the term 'cash flow' is mostly used to describe payments that are expected ...

–positive business. When Zulily went public in November 2013, the company had 2.6 million active customers and $331 million in revenue. Its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

valued the company at $2.6 billion. In August 2015, Zulily was purchased by

Liberty Interactive Qurate Retail Group (commonly known as Qurate Retail, Inc.) is an American media conglomerate controlled by company chairman John C. Malone, who owns a majority of the voting shares. History 1998 launch by Liberty Media Liberty Interactive w ...

QVC QVC (short for "Quality Value Convenience") is an American free-to-air television network, and flagship shopping channel specializing in televised home shopping, owned by Qurate Retail Group. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel in West Chester, Pen ...

division for $2.4 billion. In September 2017, Zulily launched a

private label A private label, also called a private brand or private-label brand, is a brand owned by a company, offered by that company alongside and competing with brands from other businesses. A private-label brand is almost always offered exclusively by th ...

credit card.

Business model

In 2015, it decreased the number of flash sales, in response to some customers who were overwhelmed by the amount of merchandise from which to select. Retaining customers is a challenge for it: "the flash-sale website is straining to hold on to customers and realizing it may have inundated shoppers with too many deals". Although revenue was up 29% in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the prior year, that was less of a huge increase than the 52% shown for the last quarter of 2014 compared to one year earlier, leading the company to lower its estimate of anticipated revenues in 2015. Although the web site for the company says they hold no inventory, in 2015 they began to hold some merchandise in warehouses to shorten the time for delivery. The lack of inventory has caused quality control issues including defective merchandise, damaged merchandise, incorrect or incomplete products being sent to customers. The company will issue refunds for shipping paid on the damaged, defective or incorrect merchandise if it was the only item bought, or it will replace the item for free (emailing photos of the issue is helpful). The company is including some established brands in addition to the emerging brands on which it had completely relied.

References

External links

* {{Liberty Interactive 2009 establishments in Washington (state) Companies based in Seattle American companies established in 2009 Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Deal of the day services Online retailers of the United States Retail companies established in 2009 Internet properties established in 2009 2013 initial public offerings 2015 mergers and acquisitions