Lands' End
By Matthew Palmer
Most online merchants simply convert their print catalogs into digital
format. While this a solid approach, it is refreshing to see an online
store with some new ideas. Landsend.com has a good supply of women's,
men's, and children's clothes as well as items for the home. The navigation
is as clear as most other professional sites and the layout is attractive.
In addition, the site offers a few well-designed features that offer
advice on choosing a swimsuit and choosing a "business casual"
look. This type of help is something you could get at better retail
stores, but having assembled outfits and written guidance online is
a nice feature.
Trying clothes on before buying them is certainly recommended, but
it can't be done in virtual space. Landsend.com does offer an inventive
solution, though. You can try their clothes on a "virtual model,"
which you can tailor to your dimensions. While this may be a clever
"next best thing" to actually trying merchandise on, I doubt
that I would go through the effort to assemble outfits on my virtual
model and try to guess if they would fit me. For color and print matching,
such as assembling a suit, this technology could be very useful. It
would also be more useful if many stores used it, so my physical profile
could be created once and used often.
Landsend.com does a good job of clearly explaining their privacy policy.
They say that your personal information will be shared with certain
other companies so they can add you to their catalog mailing lists.
To opt out of this, you need to call Lands' End. E-mail addresses
are never sold, they write. Privacy is often a trade off with convenience
You can choose to have the web site remember your address and credit
card information so you don't need to reenter it. While this information
could be traded with other companies, it could have been without the
special service, so no privacy is lost. Landsend.com makes it a point
to explain how online shopping carts and cookies work and how they
affect your privacy. While their policies seem very reasonable and
non-invasive, online customers should make it a point to be aware
of these technologies before they shop if they are concerned about
privacy. Especially for online merchants, comfort and security are
important concerns. Being open like landsend.com is may help set their
minds at ease.