I'm quite sure this is not brand new, but I'd like to post about it anyway... Did you see the Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ? Inspired by the Mongolian BBQ cooking tradition, the site allows users to create (and buy) their own, personalized shoes, as Nike is already doing since a couple of years.
At first sight I said "wow, great concept!" as I liked the idea of building a story around the personalization of a shoe. But then, after I realized I have to go through a long path (you have to select 20 components before being able to proceeed to the next step and buy the shoe) I changed my opinion on the site.
Instead of making the buying process quick, easy and straightforward the site asks a lot of effort to the consumer. In one way, it's good that you can create the shoe exactly has you want it, taking care of 20 details, but I believe it would have been better to have some "shortcuts" for those who want some personalization, but cannot afford (or don't know how) to go through a very time consuming process.
I would be very curious to find out conversion and drop out rates for the site. Since the idea is good, I believe that improving the usuability could actually do a lot to drive sales.
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