Keynote Systems: Tough Cyber Monday
December 4, 2009
This week's Cyber Monday, the touted Internet shopping day the Monday after Black Friday, saw numerous key retail Internet sites experience severe systems problems, according to Ben Rushlo, director of competitive research at Keynote Systems, a mobile and Internet test and measurement firm based in San Mateo, Calif.
"Interestingly Cyber Monday was much worse for sites than Black Friday, staying true to its name," Rushlo said. "More users, shopping online, brought sites that were relatively stable on Black Friday to their knees on Cyber Monday."
At least one site in every category Keynote measures--apparel, books and music, and electronics--had what would be classified as a "meltdown." Six of the measured sites crumbled during some part of the day,some for the entire day, and nine other sites had major slowdowns or periods of instability during Cyber Monday.
The apparel had the most issues, with three separate sites reporting download times five to 10 times normal and high error rates.
"All of the sites reporting issues are major destinations for online shopping and it is very surprising--given what has happened in years past and all the time retail sites have had to prepare--what happened on Monday," Rushlo said. "Given the importance of the Internet and its maturity, it is inexcusable that sites would be impacted this significantly. It is not as if Cyber Monday can take you by surprise."
Rushlo added that Wal-Mart, Sears, Newegg, Best Buy, Apple and Toys R Us performed very well on Cyber Monday.
"Interestingly Cyber Monday was much worse for sites than Black Friday, staying true to its name," Rushlo said. "More users, shopping online, brought sites that were relatively stable on Black Friday to their knees on Cyber Monday."
At least one site in every category Keynote measures--apparel, books and music, and electronics--had what would be classified as a "meltdown." Six of the measured sites crumbled during some part of the day,some for the entire day, and nine other sites had major slowdowns or periods of instability during Cyber Monday.
The apparel had the most issues, with three separate sites reporting download times five to 10 times normal and high error rates.
"All of the sites reporting issues are major destinations for online shopping and it is very surprising--given what has happened in years past and all the time retail sites have had to prepare--what happened on Monday," Rushlo said. "Given the importance of the Internet and its maturity, it is inexcusable that sites would be impacted this significantly. It is not as if Cyber Monday can take you by surprise."
Rushlo added that Wal-Mart, Sears, Newegg, Best Buy, Apple and Toys R Us performed very well on Cyber Monday.
