These Retailers Are Suffering Website Outages Amid the Holiday Traffic Surge
Samantha McDonald
Business Editor
With the holiday shopping season in full swing, a couple of retailers are experiencing technical difficulties amid a surge of customers on their websites.
Costco and Nordstrom Rack were off to a rocky start to Black Friday. In the past 24 hours, both of their e-commerce platforms suffered outages that prevented some shoppers from completing their orders.
Yesterday on Twitter, a number of frustrated users noted that the Costco.com site had been down for several hours.
One person wrote, “I’m usually a satisfied #Costco member, but today I’m a very disappointed customer #CostcoWebsiteDown. The site has been down since 9AM. I hope they do something to make it up.”
https://twitter.com/GomezSpEd/status/1200097636386295808
https://twitter.com/mikegooding14/status/1200069442295582720
Another complained that the site was not allowing customers to log into their accounts: “All I had to look forward to today was some deals because I’m alone for the holiday and your website [has] been down for hours. Quit sending me all the member sale emails since I CAN’T LOG IN YOUR SITE.”
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You really suck @Costco. All I had to look forward to today was some deals because I'm alone for the holiday and your website been down for hours. Quit sending me all the member sale emails since I CAN'T LOG IN YOUR SITE. 🤬
— ✨🌙🍁𝕂𝕒𝕣𝕝𝕒🍁🌙✨ (@GenXAquarius) November 28, 2019
Costco has since posted a banner on its homepage informing customers that its website is “currently experiencing longer than normal response times.” It has also extended its Thanksgiving Day-only promotions into Black Friday. “We apologize for any inconvenience,” the company wrote.
NordstromRack.com, however, is back in service. Following reports of crashes on its site, the retailer took to Twitter last night to confirm the system errors.
“We’d like to apologize for the technical issues we were experiencing and any inconvenience,” it said. “Though we planned ahead for our busiest week of the year, the demand has exceeded even our expectations.”
We'd like to apologize for the technical issues we were experiencing and any inconvenience. Though we planned ahead for our busiest week of the year, the demand has exceeded even our expectations. The good news is that we believe the issue has been resolved so that you can 1/2
— Nordstrom Rack (@nordstromrack) November 29, 2019
Nordstrom Rack shoppers had reported issues including items disappearing from their carts, problems with the login process and the inability to complete their transactions.
@nordstromrack Wasted THREE hours last night trying to check out. Stuff disappeared from my cart, couldn't login, couldn't check out. And now, 10 HOURS later, I STILL CAN'T GET THE WEBSITE OR APP TO WORK! Get it together!!!
— Minnielu (@Minnielu6) November 28, 2019
Sale would be great if @nordstromrack allowed you to check out. Been trying for five hours😡
— Belinda Naylor (@belindanaylor12) November 28, 2019
FN has reached out to both companies for comment.
The tech hiccups come during a critical shopping period for retailers. According to Salesforce, digital sales in the United States during Thanksgiving soared 17% to $4.1 billion, with online sales on Black Friday expected to increase 16% to $7.4 billion.
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