I just went to the site -- you can do this -- picked a random pair of boots and put them in my shopping cart. I then clicked checkout, and here is what that page looked like:The reason for the dissonance here is that justfab.com works just like a proper shopping site (in fact very like fab.com), except it's also a subscription site which signs you up for subscriptions. This is a dark pattern which uses user expectations (this is a shopping site), to sign them up for something that very few people want (book clubs for shoes). If lots of people did want this, the site could be far more honest about what it does, but it's telling that it presents itself as a checkout first and a club second (in a sidebar that many won't read), and requires action every month in order to skip a payment. How do you buy the product you're interested in, is that the tiny 'checkout as a regular member' link on the right?
It's entirely up to justfab.com how they present themselves of course, and I do dislike internet mobs piling on to criticise a company, but I thought it might be useful for you to hear the measured reaction of someone coming across the page for the first time:
I'm surprised, having heard of fab.com, that you trade under the name justfab.com - this seems a little shady to me, but perhaps it's just a coincidence - I see that justfabulous (now justfab) actually started first.
Looking at the home, I see no mention of subscriptions or subscribe, even in the small print. If the default experience is a subscription, that should be your big selling point, not something hidden away - this makes me distrust you once I find out what the company does.
I'd never expect to be auto-signed up for a VIP program - if it is a VIP program, how can it add everyone automatically? That is not what VIP means and is misleading - this makes me distrust you.
On the home page, the clearest message is that this gives you recommendations, there is no indication of subscriptions - this makes me distrust you.
On the shopping page, the layout is very confusing if this is a subscription and not a purchase - there should be a clear choice, with equal weight, between buy and subscribe. Text in sidebars won't be read by around half your customers, because usually it's meaningless fluff. Putting a warning in a sidebar suggests to me the company knows exactly what it is doing - this makes me distrust you.
The default should be to buy, not to subscribe, or at the very least there should be an explanation of why you should subscribe beside the buy button - when I find out the default is a subscription but is not presented as such, this makes me distrust the site so much I wouldn't ever shop there.
So this build up of distrust is an accumulation of small fibs or misleading statements which build up until I no longer trust what the site says. Now I'm not the target market for your site, but I find it hard to believe that the lack of mentions of subscriptions is a mistake, or that many other people wouldn't be tricked by it until they had signed up and realised their mistake in the second month.
Folks are right to be skeptical -- a lot of businesses have done this, tried to hide the fact there would be future charges. Does JustFab?
I'm afraid it still does in my opinion, yes.
Your summary above is a great statement of what you think works about the company, and how it all works, but it's at odds with the presentation of the site, which is far from clear or honest. If I hadn't read your statement from going to the home page and shopping pages I wouldn't have understood that subscriptions are the default.
If you don't want the site to have a shady reputation, it needs to be far clearer about what the proposition is to customers. Being completely honest and upfront with customers will lose you some profits in the short term, but make it more likely the site will prosper long term.
Perhaps consider a choice for customers - build up style recommendations and buy a la carte at higher prices OR build up style recommendations and subscribe for lower prices?
