It was a pleasure to attend eTail Europe in London this week. The most amaizing case was for me Zappos.com, the long tail for shoes. Tony Hsieh, CEO & Founder, told us their story in a very passionate and simple way. Like me, he is a survivor starting the business in 1999.

Zappos.com is one of the US e-commerce success story ranked nr 27 in the top 500 internet retailer 2008. 2007 sales : $850.000.000 with a growth rate of 42.38% and a conversion rate of 9.5%…and they have no master plan but are learning from mistakes!

Here are their 10 lessons I would like to share with you :

1. e-Commerce business is built on repeat customers

2. Word of mouth really works online

3. Do not compete on price but on the best service

4. Make sure your website inventory is 100% accurate (from 99% to 100%)

5. Centrally locate your distribution

6. Customer service is an investment not an expense

7. Start small & stay focused. It is OK to be patient

8. Don’ t be secretive. No top secret

9. You need to actively manage your company culture. Your culture is your brand

10. Be wary of so-called experts

It is not a hot young designer or a new label but an online evolution driven by peer-to-peer recommandation and consumers who want what they see others are buying online - in short a new kind of conspicuous cyber consumption. “It ’s what I call web 3.0″, explains Dawn Bebe, managing director of the UK’s first social shopping sit for women, Osoyou.com. Bebe believes that “The next evolution for the web is social networks that have purpose - vertical social networks”…this is where social shopping comes in. The things that bonds the people is shopping and fashion.

I strongly believe that she is absolutely right. This kind of approach is going to offer also an alternative to fashion magazines.

Another example I would like to share with you is iliketotallyloveit.com. It offers users a chance to build up a reputation for hunting out and recommending niche products that are hard to discover. This is the ideal platform for high end and luxury items where people like to show their taste of connaisseurs.