<i>>"If the candidate did not take the time to use your product, why are they sitting in your office asking for a job?"</i><p>Because my personal level of interest in what exactly you're selling may have little/nothing to do with my ability to deliver and passion to improve the infrastructure you use.<p>I'd say it's certainly a good thing if a person understands and is passionate about your product end-to-end, but it's a bit much to try and make a hard and fast requirement.<p>By the way, I'd never heard of Zaarly and found it a bit irritating that I had to scroll through 3 pages of marketing with four uses of "amazing" (The new beautiful?) to find the small "Purchase shippable items from select communities »" link in order to see what exactly the site is offering.
You don't have to be the real audience for your own product.<p>I've done interviews with e-commerce sites and can say I have never bought anything from any of the ones I interviewed with, but I have dedicated some time to observe the flow (maybe get to the point of paying and cancelling there).<p>Forcing me to purchase something just to be allowed to interview is an obnoxious barrier.