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An Eyeglass Site That Lacks Vision

Written by Evan Schuman
April 21st, 2009

BestBuyEyeglasses.com is an eyeglass E-Commerce site that is proudly going public with a tale of how it boosted revenue by 21 percent by recommending higher-priced items. They made a decision to stop presenting to customers “what seemed to be the most relevant products for that shopper, based on all the data it has mined about how shoppers browse and buy on its site,” according to this intriguing Internet Retailer piece.

If true, this is quintessentially the worst possible E-Commerce strategy. Recommendations online work if those recommendations are believed to be based on objective measurements, such as “the top five products purchased by the people who visited the pages you did.” When customers realize what is being done—and they will, given time—they will feel betrayed and all of the power of recommendation engines will be lost. Word to the wise: If you’re going to choose to push the most expensive products on customers, please have the decency to not be proud of it.

Posted in E-Commerce, IT Strategy/Industry
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One Comment | Read An Eyeglass Site That Lacks Vision

  1. Rob Martell Says:
    April 23rd, 2009 at 9:19 pm

    Too many stories about scamming your own or potential customers. As you mentioned, if true, this brings on-line retail to a new low.

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