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Zip Express President: Walmart/NEW Validate Zip’s Biz Model
In our story about the new Walmart installation program through NEW, one dealer commented that the program was a complete ripoff of Zip Express Installation.
"If I was Zip, I would sue the you know what out of these copy cats," wrote James Carlson.
That's not gonna happen.
"At first I was deeply concerned about how similar their program was to our Zip Express Installations program," Zip founder and president Chris Mauzy tells CE Pro. "Similarities include verbage, processes, policies, artwork, voucher design, scheduling process, value propositions, and many more."
Ultimately, Mauzy says he would abide by the adage that imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Nevertheless, the Walmart roll-out is keeping him on his toes:
Mauzy tells us to stay tuned for an "exciting, innovative" offering coming from Zip in early January.
Zip claims to have a network of 16,000 independent installers. NEW has about 11,000 installers.
Zip has partnered with several retailers for installing entertainment- and PC-related gear. They include has partnered with countless retailers including Amazon.com, Office Depot , TigerDirect, CompUSA, Circuit City, Target.com, BJ's Wholesale, and most recently Shopko.
"If I was Zip, I would sue the you know what out of these copy cats," wrote James Carlson.
That's not gonna happen.
"At first I was deeply concerned about how similar their program was to our Zip Express Installations program," Zip founder and president Chris Mauzy tells CE Pro. "Similarities include verbage, processes, policies, artwork, voucher design, scheduling process, value propositions, and many more."
Ultimately, Mauzy says he would abide by the adage that imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Nevertheless, the Walmart roll-out is keeping him on his toes:
NEW and Walmart have been working on this for the past 12 months. I had been eagerly awaiting this launch, since I was confident that it would include some great innovation, exciting packages and forward thinking. Innovation is what drives me personally to always make sure that my company and my team is leading the pack with cutting edge solutions and world class customer service.
This roll-out left me wanting more as there was nothing new or exciting. We will use this as a near-miss reminder that we need to continue leading the pack and never look back as there will always be "Fast Followers" trailing and imitating.
Mauzy tells us to stay tuned for an "exciting, innovative" offering coming from Zip in early January.
Zip claims to have a network of 16,000 independent installers. NEW has about 11,000 installers.
Zip has partnered with several retailers for installing entertainment- and PC-related gear. They include has partnered with countless retailers including Amazon.com, Office Depot , TigerDirect, CompUSA, Circuit City, Target.com, BJ's Wholesale, and most recently Shopko.
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Article Topics
Blogs · Big-Box Retailers · Installation · Walmart · Installation · New · Zip Express ·About the Author
Julie Jacobson, Editor-at-large, CE Pro
Julie Jacobson is co-founder of EH Publishing and currently spends most of her time writing for CE Pro, mostly in the areas of home automation, networked A/V and the business of home systems integration. She majored in Economics at the University of Michigan, earned an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, and has never taken a journalism class in her life. Julie is a washed-up Ultimate Frisbee player with the scars to prove it. Follow her on Twitter @juliejacobson.
3 Comments (displayed in order by date/time)
industry vet—agreed. Dates back to CompUSA about 10 years ago, I think. It’s all about the implementation.
This is far from news or creative thinking. My 1st installation company founded in 1981 performed installations for at least a half a dozen high end stores. As the installation business rapidly grew, we were then approached by manufacturers to sell their components… The rest is history, old news, and boring.
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This type of subcontracting network is nothing new to the low voltage industry. And I belive that Installs Inc was doing it before Zip….. there are a lot of companies doing this Service live, installerNet and the list goes on….