Clever Marketing or a User Centred Ecommerce Experience?

Retailers are increasingly offering ways for customers to interact with their brand with retailers, such as Argos, offering an interactive questionnaire when users are searching for a product to allow them to choose the item that is "ideal" for them.

You would be forgiven for thinking that these interactive and social elements are just another way for companies to encourage customers to spend money on items that they didn't even know they wanted, but do they actually enhance the customer experience?

A friend recently sent me a link to the increasingly popular shoe and accessory site, www.stylistpick.com.  Clicking on the link I was sent, I could view the particular item my friend intended me to see, though I was unable to browse other items within the site.  This is because Stylist Pick has come up with a very clever way to "tailor" the online experience for its users.  In order to view items, as the name suggests, users need to go through a process in order to tell the 'stylist' a bit more about what they like and they in turn will display items that are apparently relevant to them.

The London e-commerce fashion start-up requires users to sign-up to the site in order to view items.  As well as the consistent log-in option, a strong call to action is provided on each of the pages to 'Get Started', where users will complete a questionnaire to 'Discover your style profile'.

Persuasion architecture techniques are used throughout the landing pages to drive users to sign up, for example, stating that new Cheryl Cole collection is only available to Stylist Pick members promotes scarcity and generates demand for both the product and membership of the site itself.  Reciprocity is also at the centre of the offering in that by taking a few minutes to complete a multiple choice fashion questionnaire, the user is then promised an array of items specific to their tastes and access to limited edition collections.

After completing the questionnaire however, I am asked to provide my personal information and click on the button to 'See my Profile'. Again, this is a very clever way to make me view this whole online process as a personalized one.  Users have also invested in the process by this point, so it’s more likely that they will enter their personal details and sign up.

After I get my 'fashion persona', I am prompted to share this with my ‘friends’ on Facebook.  This move is intended to promote 'liking', i.e. others similar to me are buying items from this site, therefore it’s likely to appeal to me.  I then arrive at a page with the title 'Welcome to your preview showroom' where I can't yet access these 'highly specific' items.  I'm told that they are currently personalising my showroom and I will receive a notification in 24 hours when it is ready to view.  After waiting for access to my 'showroom' with excitement, I'm slightly disappointed with the limited browsing experience when I finally get access.  What is displayed to me generally caters to my tastes, though not fully.

On the whole, this is a very clever approach for e-commerce sites, if a bit slow to get going.  Whether answers to the fashion questionnaire are used to display a generic template of items or not, the impression is given that all the items are unique to the users’ tastes.  Customers no longer have to browse endlessly or filter items from lists of thousands, the ground work is done for you.  Whilst some users may still prefer to browse all items and feel that this approach limits their choice (myself included), Stylist Pick undeniably offer a new online customer experience and it will be interesting to monitor competitors reactions to this site and how the service evolves.