Black Friday Causes Shutdowns

Tags: research and reports performance monitoring Keynote Fusepoint

By David Hamilton, November 28, 2008
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November 28, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- The unofficial beginning of the holiday shopping season, the massive increase in web traffic caused by Black Friday, has been leading to many online retail websites shutting down including large retailers like Sears (www.sears.com).

Having originated in 1960's, the term "Black Friday" referred to the heavy traffic on the day after US Thanksgiving, however, it went on to mean the start of the period where retailers are "in the black" or turning a profit. In an age where online shopping is competing with malls for sales, its original connotation is returning. And with Cyber Monday, the busiest online retail day of the year, quickly approaching, poor performance Friday may offer a preview of lost sales which totalled about $733 million last Cyber Monday.

Test and measurement products and services provider Keynote has observed that leading holiday shopping websites are starting to experience slowdowns. Its "online holiday shopping index," which tracks top retailers including Abercrombie & Fitch, Banana Republic and Eddie Bauer, observed that across the index, the site slowed down to 70 percent of their normal download speeds on average.

Data Center Knowledge has reported that downtime on Sears' online shopping site Friday morning has made it one of the first online retailers to fall prey to the holiday shopping rush.

Earlier this week, web hosting provider Fusepoint Managed Services (www.fusepoint.com) released the results of a survey, which revealed that one out of four Canadian executives said they are not confident in their website's operation during the holiday season, and more than 55 percent admitted that their e-commerce systems are not prepared for it.