Urban Outfitters is one of my favorite stores. It’s the one place to buy clothes that make you look hip, hipster, stylish, cute—everything. I don’t know too many girls in New York who don’t own things from this store. Gladiator sandals. Flowy tank tops. Summer dresses. Plus, all of the fun stuff in the “Accessories” section. (We all own at least ONE coffee table book about sex positions, places to take visitors in NYC, Audrey Hepburn, lines from Sex & The City—take your pick)

I recently ordered a pair of summer sandals from Urban. Needed new ones. Plus, they were on sale. ($35 including shipping for some cute shoes—yep. Done.) Shipping was scheduled to take 3-5 days. Took 1 1/2. Awesome. I love them. They fit. No problems. The usual Urban ordering experience. (Note: I usually prefer shopping in store but the shoe selection is never as good as the online.)

Then today I received an email thanking me for the purchase and asking me to leave some feedback. (Photo above) OK. That’s nice. Sure. They then outline the next best steps.

1. Find your items on UrbanOutfitters.com
2. Click the “Review” tab
3. Rank Your Item
4. Leave a Comment About the Item
5. Upload your photos & video
6. That’s it!

Wellll, “That’s it!” isn’t really a fair statement. They want me to do a LOT of things on their site where I’m not a visitor every day. First, I had to go find my purchase. OK, so I have to go back to my receipt, find the name of the shoes. Hmm. It would have been easier if a simple link appeared directing me right to what I bought. Then, I click Reviews and can comment. But , once I DO comment/review/upload content… what do I do next? Do I get notifications if someone else writes about the shoe? I don’t really care. I like them and it’s not like I’m going to be buying them again.

While they ask for my location so I can “connect” with others—I don’t really need to meet someone who likes Urban Outfitters. I can find people in the store for that, or ask one of my girlfriends that frequent the store as well. I just don’t see the incentive to reviewing the shoes on the Urban Outfitters site. Am I getting a discount? I know reviews are helpful. I look at them when buying, but there has to be a better, easier way to do this.

Urban Outfitters is a perfect example of a place to integrate Facebook Connect and take the brand to a community where people already talk about it. By encouraging users to submit content to their own site, it just doesn’t make sense. I’m there to shop. NOT be part of a community. If I purchase shoes, I should share this easily with one click on Facebook. Then, my girls who have similar taste can see. Like them. Heck, they can even buy them right there or go back to the Urban site for shopping of their own. Urban does a good job already by including popular sharing features on the items. I can post a dress that I want to my profile and add a comment. That’s great! Getting an email to feedback on the site a few days after delivery—that’s not doing it for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to just complain about it, I want to propose this new way of connecting people who shop on the site. Urban has a huge fan base. I’m sure their numbers for online shopping are HUGE. Let’s make it easier to share all of the fabulous finds to places I go to every day. Make it easy and the content will come naturally to building solid reviews and a solid fan base connected online in one easy place.

Have you come across any other sites your frequent often that would benefit from better social network integration? Would love to hear about them in the comments!