A limited Cyber Monday promotion generated enough traffic to give J. Crew Group Inc.’s website fits.
The apparel brand had site outages throughout the day on Monday, data from website performance management firm Catchpoint Systems Inc. shows. J. Crew, No. 50 in the Internet Retailer 2017 Top 500, ran a promotion on Cyber Monday offering shoppers 40% off everything plus an additional 10% off sitewide on all orders placed before noon Eastern, which included free shipping with no minimum purchase.
Shoppers took to Twitter to vent their frustration with the site outages, noting that online shopping carts were not loading properly.
@jcrew trying to order a jacket before the 12pm sale ends and your site is crashing. Please help!
advertisement— Ryan John (@ryangeorgejohn) November 27, 2017
Been trying to order from @jcrew ALL DAY but nothing is working pic.twitter.com/ezVcCU4udh
— Matthew David (@mattdavid_04) November 27, 2017
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Multiple shoppers tweeted a screen grab of a message wherein J. Crew informed online shoppers, “our site’s experiencing more traffic than usual, but you’ll be able to get back to shopping shortly.”
Hey… not cool. #WaitingRoom pic.twitter.com/HOz7izcHeh
— Kelly Steele (@kellydsteele) November 27, 2017
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A J. Crew spokeswoman did not immediately return a request for comment. On Monday afternoon, J. Crew’s Twitter feed triumphantly announced “We’re back!” and stated that the retailer would extend its Cyber Monday promotion through midnight Eastern on Monday.
We’re back! Our 40% off + extra 10% off Cyber Monday sale is on and extended through midnight. Happy shopping! https://t.co/jnWffdvQJQ
— J.Crew (@jcrew) November 27, 2017
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Meanwhile, Catchpoint’s data showed that as of 3:45 p.m. Eastern on Cyber Monday, Apple Inc. (No. 2) was enjoying the most consistent website performance across mobile and desktop devices among major U.S. online retailers.
Catchpoint’s data shows that Apple’s mobile site loaded in 1.46 seconds on average on Cyber Monday, while its desktop site loaded in 1.5 seconds, giving it the fastest combined load time among major retailers. By comparison, Amazon (No. 1) had the fastest mobile site load speed at 1.3 seconds on average, but its desktop site loaded at a rate nearly four times slower (4.01 seconds).
Here’s a look at which retailers had the fastest mobile and desktop sites on Cyber Monday, according to Catchpoint. Catchpoint’s data reflects the median homepage load times taken throughout the day.
Mobile
- Amazon: 1.3 seconds
- Apple: 1.47 seconds
- The Home Depot Inc. (No. 8 in the Top 500): 1.96 seconds
- Staples Inc. (No. 5): 2.21 seconds
- Costco Wholesale Corp. (No. 9): 3.49 seconds
Desktop
- Apple: 1.5 seconds
- Staples: 1.86 seconds
- Zappos (owned by Amazon): 2.31 seconds
- Kohl’s Corp. (No. 18): 2.44 seconds
- Home Depot: 2.5 seconds