J. Crew Learned How User Experience Impacts The Bottom Line. How About Your Company?

The problem of a dip in revenue is not uncommon especially in a slow economy. However, when a company blames its lackluster performance on software problems, that’s not something you hear about too often. The company in question is J.Crew. According to the Wall Street Journal, J.Crew’s income for the quarter was down 12% from the year-ago quarter to $18.1 million due to a “software upgrade.”

Apparently, J.Crew customers have been pulling their hair out with botched orders and returns. Some customers were charged astronomical amounts for shipping; others had to deal with lost orders. Attempts to track order status received no feedback. Sounds like a change of e-commerce system.

So, what’s the cost of User Experience? In this case, about 2.1 million dollars.