Boots gets a festive roasting
Xmas Day sale shoppers forced to wait in online queue for hours... then site crashes!
YOU might have thought they had better things to do yesterday. Instead, millions spent Christmas Day shopping online as sales began.
But for one group of bargainhunters it turned to farce as the Boots website crashed from the strain of too many shoppers logging on hoping to bag discounts of up to 50 per cent.
First they were told there was a two-hour virtual queue just to access the sale – then many of those who waited found that the site went down as they attempted to pay.
While others might have given up at that point and concentrated on normal Christmas Day activities, disgruntled customers then spent time on social media to deluge Boots with complaints.
The debacle came as the online retailers’ trade body IMRG estimated Christmas Day spending to be some £844million, which would be up by 6.3 per cent on a year ago. Sales from the likes of Argos, Halfords, Next, Marks & Spencer and John Lewis were live during the day amid predictions that the amount of money spent shopping online will have hit a record.
Despite the appeal of shopping from the comfort of an armchair, however, millions are expected to visit the sales in person today. VoucherCodes and the Centre for Retail Research predict that Boxing Day sales will attract more than a third of the population, expecting them to spend a record £4.3billion – up 12 per cent on 2016.
‘Sorry, we’re really busy right now’
In the case of Boots, the retailer had proudly advertised its ‘biggest sale event ever’ on Twitter on Christmas Eve.
But customers sent a torrent of replies claiming it was impossible to check out and that they were being confronted by an error message saying: ‘Sorry, we’re really busy right now as so many of you are shopping our amazing sale.’
Bonnie Newman tweeted: ‘@ BootsUK your website is disgraceful. Was in the middle of paying and got chucked out because you’re too busy. Now lost the items. Well done Boots. Merry Xmas to you, let’s hope your customer experience gets significantly better in 2018.’
Nicole Demaine wrote: ‘Motherin-law has just waited 45 minutes to get on to Boots website only for it to say, “We’re really busy at the moment, come back soon”. Disgusting. Waited all that time and still can’t get on!’ And a third disappointed shopper, Gavin Clay, posted: ‘@BootsUK just waited 50 minutes in an online queue to browse for a grand total of three minutes to then get booted off with a, “We’ll be back soon” message! #absolutejoke #wasteoftime.’
One woman claimed that she had been trying to get on the website for 24 hours, while another customer said he was confronted by a 20-minute queue at 1.35am on Christmas morning.
Other internet users bemoaned the fact that many items they had bought in previous days as Christmas presents were discounted in the sale or that online shopping distracted them
opening their own gifts. Last night Boots failed to respond to a request for comment.
Although millions are expected to hit the high streets and shopping malls today, IMRG’s Justin Opie warned that website promotions beginning on Christmas Eve may have taken some of the wind out of the Boxing Day sales.
‘Although going out to the shops on that day has long been a British tradition, footfall was reportedly down 7.3 per cent on Boxing Day last year,’ he said.
‘It’s likely that spend on Christmas Day is pulling some of that order volume forward as well, as shoppers have the ability to browse and buy from the sofa on mobile devices during quiet moments at home and visiting family, redeeming the huge numbers of gift cards and coupons that they receive in place of presents each year.’ Many stores have also been running sales promotions since Black Friday in November. Savings of up to 80 per cent have been on offer from the likes of Debenhams and House of Fraser, while chains such as Argos and Currys have also been heavily promoting deals.
But the British Retail Consortium said it does not see any trend of a reduction in importance of the Boxing Day sales.
Around one in three Britons – 34 per cent – will go to the sales today, up from 23 per cent last year, according to Barclaycard.
A poll by the company found that months of ‘feeling the squeeze’ is resulting in many consumers looking forward to the sales to ease their budgets.
A spokesman said: ‘ Last year, Black Friday overshadowed Boxing Day sales as many retailers struggled to maintain consumer interest in what has become a month-long discounting event.
‘This year, however, value-seeking consumers appear to be more eager to buy cut-price items across both sales periods as they try to combat rising prices.’
However, a separate poll of more than 1,000 shoppers for Radio 4 found that 56 per cent think Black Friday is now more popular than the Boxing Day sales.
‘Feeling the squeeze’