Retailers Buckle Under E-Commerce’s Growing Popularity
Retailers Buckle Under E-Commerce’s Growing Popularity
By Terrence Russell November 26, 2007 | 2:56:01 PMCategories: E-Commerce
The economy might be on the ropes, but e-commerce appears to be alive and well. According to a report from comScore, retailers netted $531 million in online sales on the day after Thanksgiving (aka Black Friday). The total not only represents an increase of 22 percent versus last year, but also shows signs of the increasing popularity of online shopping during the holidays. However, just because there was an increase, doesn’t mean everything went smoothly.
For retailers like Sears and Circuit City, who were hit hard with web traffic, a lot of the issue is dealing with the transition of shoppers’ habits. Gian Fulgoni, a comScore Chairman, hit the nail straight on the head in a company statement. “The Friday after Thanksgiving is known for heavy spending in retail stores, but it’s clear that consumers are increasingly turning to the Internet to make their holiday purchases.”
Fulgoni and the folks at comScore realize this, but one has to wonder if big box retailers are truly prepared for the growing influx. Circuit City and Fry’s were some of the retailers who experienced minor glitches, but the Sears site experienced a veritable meltdown for large portions of Friday. Macy’s and Wal-Mart faced similar fates just last year — so it seems like trail by fire may be necessary for big box retailers to understand the highly traversed online shopping space.
With today being projected as the biggest online shopping day of the year (aka Cyber Monday), it’ll be interesting to see how many large retailers are able to weather the storm. Of course, the biggest shopping day in terms of sales doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be the biggest day in terms of traffic. Ironically, all the problem sites that EPICENTER visited on Friday have been running smoothly as of this posting.
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