J.Crew Website Woes: Have Too Many Orders Gone Amiss?

I don’t think so. I honestly feel bad for J.Crew, who has been struggling for a full month now trying to correct the order processing issues caused by their recent website upgrade. But, based on their responses to the problems, I doubt they’ve hit the point where they’ve driven too many customers away.

Today, CEO Millard Drexler and President Tracy Gardner posted the announcement above on the home page of their website, which was also delivered by email to customers. Between the lines, the message is telling us that the issues have escalated to the highest levels of the Company for resolution. I have a strong respect for their willingness to publicly tie their names to the problems, which is also an indicator of the severity of impact the issues have had inside J.Crew.

What’s unique about the problems J.Crew has been having, is that they aren’t visible to Visitors of the site. But, once an order is placed, many Buyers have become painfully aware of the internal processing issues J.Crew has been dealing with over the last month: late orders, partial shipments, missing items, promises made by more-than-friendly Customer Service agents, and so on. (You can read more details about the issues at the J.Crew Aficionada blog).

I became personally aware of the issues through my friend, who placed three Crewcuts orders over the last 4 weeks. They all took over two weeks to arrive, two of them were partial shipments (though the website showed the items still available), and a couple of items never did arrive. For all her troubles, J.Crew responded by giving her a $50 gift card. Wow! I think this gesture is a sign that they desperately care about their customers and are working hard to make things right.

The upgrade, 2 years in the making, was intended to significantly advance overall service by offering features like real-time inventory tracking, but instead is (at least temporarily) frustrating many customers. Being in the throws of web development ourselves, we at Loobalee can appreciate the time, effort, and funding that likely went into this major upgrade, and we sincerely support all the J.Crew employees and/or contractors who are most definitely putting in long hours to correct the situation.

J.Crew probably couldn’t have picked a worse time for the upgrade, which was at the same time as the Final Sale of the Spring/Summer season — right when on-line order placement was high. And, a Free Shipping offer made in mid-July that was intended as a strategic move to thank customers for their patience almost surely made things worse. Pair Final Sale prices and Free Shipping together, and you can attract a lot of customers! The high volume of orders, I suspect, only made things worse internally for those who were trying to resolve the problems.

Just a few weeks back, we welcomed J.Crew’s Crewcuts to our “Sales At A Glance” and despite their recent struggles, we are still strongly supportive of the brand, mainly because of the unique styles and high quality items they consistently offer (and at fair prices, too). But, even more so now, because we see J.Crew is working hard to make things right for their customers.

Have you ordered any Crewcuts recently? Did your order run amiss? If so, we’d love to hear how your situation was (or was not) resolved. I suspect that $50 gift cards and other apologetic gestures are being generously rewarded.

Suzanne Rielle, Co-founder, Loobalee.com