Endless.com is a cool Web2.0-ish looking online store that sells exclusively shoes and handbags. They launched in December of 2006 and ever since have offered negative $5 overnight shipping to lure customers. This in essence means that your shoes ship free and on top of it you get a $5 credit, or a discount, since your shoes will likely cost more than that.
Overall prices are very reasonable as well. I compared a few products to Zappos and while Endless offers less of a variety, the prices seem to be a bit lower.
Top-notch visual shopping experience
If you have never been to the store I suggest you pay it a visit. The shopping experience it offers is one of the best I have ever had. The visual product search somewhat resembles Like.com but since Endless.com is designed specifically for shoes it offers many more shopping options. You can narrow down your selection by category, brand, color, shoe size, price range and even by how wide your foot is.
But the most impressive feature is the ability to see the shoe texture by hovering mouse over the product image. I have seen a similar functionality before however I am really amazed by the crispiness and resolution of the images that Endless.com displays.
Free product return with paid shipping
I never have bought shoes online before. When I go to a shoe store, I usually have to try a dozen pairs or so before I find the one that comfortably sits on my feet. It is possible that I am too picky, or maybe my feet have irregular shape. Either way I am not confident at all about buying shoes online. I bet the team at Endless.com is familiar with the problem. As a counter measure they offer free product return for 365 days and they will even pay for your return shipping! Isn’t it nice?
Secret affiliation with Amazon?
There is one more thing about this shoe store that is not very obvious and that is the fact that it is owned by Amazon and sells Amazon products. Even your Amazon customer login will work when you go to the login page. I am not sure why Amazon is not making the affiliation more transparent however I can guess. Since they envision themselves as a web services company and already offer a pretty impressive set of API’s for e-tailers to integrate into their online stores, Endless.com could be an example of what the next Amazon API is capable of delivering. If my assumption is correct, Amazon would want web-developers to see Endless.com as an independent Amazon partner rather than a team inside Amazon corporate campus. My exposure however to Amazon web-services is limited and anyone with a better hands on experience with it is welcome to comment.
