Unless you were hiding under a rock somewhere, you probably heard that this past Monday (11/28/11) was what has come to be known as “Cyber Monday”. Generally speaking, it is the shopping holiday created by marketers to encourage people to shop online on the Monday after Thanksgiving. Since its inception in 2006, Cyber Monday has proven to be a very lucrative day in terms of sales for online retailers:

Cyber Monday Online Sales (in US$ millions)
11/27/06 – $610
11/26/07 – $730
12/01/08 – $846
11/30/09 – $887
11/29/10 – $1,028

Source: comScore, Inc.

According to early estimates, this year was no exception. In fact, some large online retailers received so much traffic on Monday that it actually caused their websites to fail. Too much business? A good problem to have, right? Not in this case.

One of the most notable casualties was women’s clothing retailer Ann Taylor, whose AnnTaylor.com and Loft.com crashed under the weight of scads of online shoppers looking to cash in on their “half off everything plus free shipping” deal. In light of multiple complaints, Ann Taylor extended the Cyber Monday deal until midnight on Tuesday. A spokesperson from Ann Taylor issued the following statement on Tuesday (11/29):

“Our Cyber Monday promotion received an unprecedented response and yesterday the site experienced some instability at various times throughout the day. As such, we extended the promotion through midnight tonight to ensure all of our clients can take advantage.”

First off: Good for them for offering a make-good. It may cost them money, but it will likely go far in retaining customers.

This still brings us back to the issue at hand, though: how did this happen? Was it just a lack of preparation or was the company a victim of their own successful promotion? Probably a combination of both. Either way, the takeaways from an event like this are pretty clear:

1. In advance of a major promotion/marketing push, companies must make sure their online environment is ready. Use analytics data from past years to help establish baseline projections for what might occur this year. It’s never an exact science because some factors are out of your control, but it sure beats leaving it up to chance.
2. Make sure you have a Plan B! Your tech team should be ready to move at the first sign of trouble. Load balancing, hot standbys — whatever you need to do to ensure uptime, make it happen.

From our vantage point up here in the cheap seats, it’s looking like Ann Taylor did neither of these things very well, and while it definitely cost them in the short run, hopefully the long-term implications won’t be too bad.

FUN FACT: The first Ann Taylor store was opened in 1956 in New Haven, Connecticut. You may recognize the city because there is also a certain luxury marketing and advertising agency in New Haven.