J. Crew drops duty from Canadian e-commerce site, cites bad publicity as cause for increase in sales

J. Crew drops duty from Canadian e-commerce site, cites bad publicity as cause for increase in sales

Just days after outraged Canadians noticed the massive price discrepancy between J. Crew’s online offerings in Canada versus the United States, the company has issued a release saying they will no longer charge duty on their Canadian website. On average, J. Crew in-store prices are 15 per cent higher in Canada than the United States, but online, with duties and taxes, some items rang in at almost 50 per cent more. Some might think all this would be bad for business, but as the saying goes, there’s no such thing as bad publicity—we’ve been following this harrowing tale, which has led us to write about it three times in the past seven days, and CEO Mickey Drexler told the Globe he thinks this brouhaha has actually drawn more people to the store. Good work, J. Crew marketing team—we’ll think of you when we’re picking up our next cashmere sweater set.