“Welcome, my friends, to your Zappos Oath of Employment. This will evolve, change, and grow over time but we wanted to get the most important stuff in here first: our Core Values. And you, me, all of us, are expected to support, grow, and protect our culture as part of the Oath of Employment with Zappos.
By reading, studying, and understanding this Oath of Employment, you agree to enact each item and agree to embrace each item in energizing your roles and in your decision making.”

At Zappos, anything worth doing is worth doing with WOW. WOW is such a short, simple word, but it really encompasses a lot of things. To WOW, you must differentiate yourself, which means do something a little unconventional and innovative. You must WOW (go above and beyond what's expected) in every interaction with co-workers, vendors, customers, the community, investors – with everyone. And whatever you do must have an emotional impact on the receiver. We are not an average company, our service is not average, and we don't want our people to be average. We expect every employee to deliver WOW. Whether internally with co-workers or externally with our customers and partners, delivering WOW results in word of mouth. Our philosophy at Zappos is to WOW with service and experience, not with anything that relates directly to monetary compensation (for example, we don't offer blanket discounts or promotions to customers).We seek to WOW our customers, our co-workers, our vendors, our partners, and in the long run, our investors.
Ask yourself: What are things you can improve upon in your work or attitude to WOW more people? Have you WOWed at least one person today?
Sample Behaviors for this value:
- Helps even when it “isn’t their job”
- Wows everyone, everywhere
- Actually makes me say “wow”