Meghan Markle’s As Ever customers have been sent a dire warning over the data they have submitted when purchasing from the brand. The brand has celebrated two sold-out launches since the website launched back in March.
Despite the sell out of As Ever, with the second launch taking place just last month, the website failed to initially display a ‘sold out’ next to the products. According to the latest edition of Private Eye magazine points out that “unlike the vast majority of shopping websites, As Ever didn’t initially display a ‘sold out’ sign; instead, it let customers make the full order, including payment details, before emailing them to tell them they were out of luck.”
This failing led to customers inputting their data, such as their name, email address and payment details, to the system before receiving an email to say the product they wished to purchase was already unavailable.
The website has since been updated with a ‘sold out’ or ‘coming soon’ sign marked next to each product.
Meghan and the As Ever team have outsourced the actual sales operation to a firm called Snow Commerce. The online retailer has a host of poor customer reviews and a one star rating from America’s Better Business Bureau.
The website for As Ever is said to harvest “the date, time, and location of your visit” and the “devices you use to connect”, as well as “Geolocation data such as IP address and shipping address” and “Site account login credentials and payment details such as a credit card number”.
Speaking to MailOnline, an industry professisonal recently said: “There is no warehouse full of jams… Meghan has all their data now.”
The data harvesting tactics by As Ever are not illegal or even that unusual – and the company tells anyone who clicks on its privacy page about their purpose of collecting the data.
As Ever also states that it “may draw inferences about you, reflecting what we believe to be your preferences, characteristics, predispositions, and attitudes”.
Meghan’s brand also released its first alcohol product – a 2023 Napa Valley Rosé – on July 1. Customers wishing to purchase the wine had to enter their date of birth.