December 20 2006

Internet shopping cracking under the strain of Christmas?

There's nothing like a sales rush to show the cracks in a online operation but it's how a retailer reacts to these 'glitches' and communicates with customers that can have more of a lasting effect. Both Woolworths and toy retailer Hamleys have been in the news this week.

Woolworths was offering LCD televisions for just £150 when they should have been priced at around the £1,500 mark. What was obviously a mistake somewhere in the system sent consumers rushing to the site to buy as many as they could, The Register reports that the rush of bargain hunters brought down the site - not something which any retailer would have wanted at their busiest period.

We've also heard from one customer who ordered Christmas presents online only to be told by email that the order was cancelled because what she had ordered was out of stock. Luckily the customer had time to buy something else. With reports that people are leaving Christmas shopping until later this year it could have left the customer with a much nastier experience of online shopping than it did.

Hamleys has also been hit by down-time troubles as customers received multiple discounts after being able to enter a code more than once on the retailer's site. Initially, the company said that it would honour the orders but it has since changed its mind.

Are consumers being too unforgiving, and too greedy, or are these all unforgivable mistakes which e-retailers should be getting right by now? I suspect a bit of both. What do you think?

Emma Herrod