The idea was to create an ultra low tech, easily maintainable site that could actually be used by humans. Put it on every page a la eBay and Yahoo.
People use it repeatedly.
Yes, it does sell more stuff. I broke up the big catalog lists into small categories. The initial user testing showed that the previous lists were too big. It also showed that people who know what they are looking for will recognize the category and go right to it. And those are people who buy.