Online store predicts record

THOUGH online store Takealot’s website went down in the Black Friday frenzy, it still predicts that its current sale will be the most successful in its history.

“Having experienced 227% increase in traffic last year‚ we worked incredibly hard to plan for up to five times the usual traffic and we’ve been really pleased with strong site performance so far,” the company told TMG Digital.

“In the course of the day‚ we experienced some challenges at checkout – unfortunately our payment gateway reported that banking processing was feeling the nationwide Black Friday pressure and slowing down checkouts.” The site is back up. According to IT company Snapt’s chief executive Dave Blakey‚ site crashes such as Takealot’s‚ caused by high traffic volumes‚ can be avoided with proper IT infrastructure. If not dealt with they can lead to customer loss‚ he says.

But Takealot doesn’t seem too fazed by that – with web traffic growing by the hour on Friday.

“After our initial spike at midnight‚ traffic has been building hourly from the early hours of the morning. At peak times‚ we’ve welcomed more than 300% of the usual traffic we would expect on a Friday in the festive season.

“Since we first launched a Black Friday promotion in South Africa back in 2012‚ we’ve seen demand grow and grow – last year, in 2015, seeing a 260% annual increase in Black Friday orders.”

The firm expects its Blue Dot promotion‚ currently running‚ to be the most successful in its history.