Lululemon Banning Customers

Whew...a lot of chatter floating around in the blogosphere and news outlets. I would like to personally thank Lulumen blogger, Eric, for standing up for his beliefs. It was his tenacity and assertiveness that helped influence Lululemon to re-evaluate their "quick-fix" of banning loyal customers and resolve to correct deep rooted issues to an underlying problem. A belated apology from the company may seem small, but the bigger appreciation is from the loyal customers who have been long-often faulted for the failures and mistakes of a company's broken processes and lack of commendable mediocre quality control. Thank you Eric and those who reached out. While it may have been a small number affected, your efforts have helped a company look beyond their excuses and take some responsibility for previous actions.

It is frustrating to want an item, see it quickly disappear, and then instantly appear on eBay for 150-200% retail price; however, a company cannot expect, demand or prohibit customers from selling on eBay. eBay sellers reserve the right to sell an item at whichever price they chose, and customers have the right to purchase an item at a price point they feel comfortable with. If merchandise is being sold in bulk and resold on eBay, it is not the customers' fault nor is it their obligation to purchase at a higher price point. The fault resides on the company's shoulders to resolve and repair a broken process that allows customers to purchase duplicate items in multiple size runs. By scolding and banning the customer, not only is the company alienating loyal customers, but they are not fixing the actual issue within the broken process.

What is the problem? Luluelmon doesn't want customers reselling its products on eBay? That is not a problem, nor is it a solution. If they are true to their intentions, their current problem is customers buying counterfeit products. Most counterfeit items are sold on eBay, so how do they limit eBay sellers? They cannot. If they cannot ban sellers on eBay, how can they prevent them from selling? While it may be within their legal right, banning customers without published limitations and knowledge is not mending the broken process nor maintaining customer loyalty. It's easy to blame the person who bought 4 or 5 items for friends, family, or profit at the surface level, instead of digging deep to find the real solution to the underlying problem. A sloppy solution says "yes...ban all of those who resell on eBay" instead of proposing a solution on how they can limit purchases that will eventually appear on eBay for profit. The root of the problem is a lack of process and procedures for the limitations of customer procurement. Educating and regulating the process would be far more viable long-term solution than a reckless banishment without consistent criteria and standards.

In my own opinion (which has no more weight than any other customer), is that they should limit online purchase orders to 2 items each for 2 size runs (4 items total). This would give some flexibility for buyers to purchase items based off color combinations and variance in sizing, while still presenting maximum thresholds. For projected "hot" items, they could limit online orders to 1 item each for 2 size runs (2 items total). If they could previously ban customers by IP address, they can limit future purchases by IP address, preventing duplicate orders from multiple email accounts.

For local purchases, educators should be required to receive management approval for more than 2 sizes of the same color combination in a single transaction. Management approval can only be used for 2 items each for 2 size runs and must log full name and driver's license number from a current government issued ID. Local purchases for "hot" items purchases must log name and driver's license number and are limited to the maximum number allotted for a specific time span (i.e. 7 days). Names and driver's license numbers can be uploaded with receipt ID's to monitor and analyze frequent shopping patterns.

Viola. Just an over share of my own opinion.

My bottom-line personal opinion: Don't penalize the customer. Don't blame the customer. Blame the process and develop a quick modification and long term solution.

As a six-sigma nerd, some of my favorite quality quotes:

“A bad system will defeat a good person every time.” – Deming
“Real profits are generated by loyal customer- not just satisfied customers.”
“If you are constantly fire‐fighting, you have the impression that you are surrounded by many, many problems. However, careful analysis will point to a few core problems that will solve all the fires."
“Problems are excellent guides to improvement, but only if the real problem is identified.”
“When solving problems, dig at the roots instead of just hacking at the leaves.”
"Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business."

I love the product and the brand, but let's keep moving steps forward...not backward!