Well, that was anticlimactic. The event Click Frenzy, which has been touted as Australia’s version of the Cyber Monday event across online retail, has become a disaster. After the 7pm start, the entire website manage to crash and other retailers are feeling the strain.
Kogan, Dick Smith and Myer are some of the sites we visited, and both have managed to be taken down due to the stress at the time of writing. This comes after David Jones‘ own online shop also crashed this afternoon due to heavy traffic.
Click Frenzy, however, has posted a message on its Facebook page saying that it is “far from embarrassed” and that while “some” (try probably tens of thousands) cannot access the deals, some are getting through.
“Whilst some individuals are having issues battling against thousands of other shoppers, thousands (yes, THOUSANDS) are online, and successfully nabbing bargains with Click Frenzy… And clearly that couldn’t happen if the site was done,” they (arrogantly) profess.
“Just like the Boxing Day Sales… Crowds are to be expected. For those experiencing difficulty, we recommend you check back in later when the storm has calmed enough for you to break through on your end.”
But this probably goes to show how they don’t understand how online retail works. If your website is down, you’re not going to get any sale – and in fact, a simple Google search could lead me to an Australian retailer, eBay or Amazon. They should have known when doing the media campaign that they would need more servers.
They want this to continue beyond this year – well, they have pretty much f**ked that up, haven’t they.
Update: Click Frenzy’s Grant Arnott – who is leading this entire venture – has released a statement on Facebook.
Firstly, I would like to issue an apology to anyone who has been inconvenienced and frustrated by the technical issues relating to the inaugural Click Frenzy 24 hour online sale.
The technical directors, developers and infrastructure specialists involved in this inaugural event are working to get to the root of what occurred with the wave of traffic at 7pm. I am not in a position to describe exactly what has occurred yet as the teams involved are working on the solution first to resolve any problems. We will provide answers as soon as they are available. We will continue to issue updates.
Kind regards,
Grant Arnott