J. Crew said it was having technical difficulties with its website on Black Friday as customers took to social media to complain that they couldn’t sign in or complete orders.
Shoppers said on Twitter that they were running into errors, couldn’t load items into their shopping carts and had other issues with the website. The sales and high dollars spent on the day after Thanksgiving make it one of the most important shopping days of the year and often test the wherewithal of a retailer’s technology.
Amazon earlier this year had issues on its shopping holiday, Amazon Prime Day. Macy’s experienced a credit card glitch last year on Black Friday.
Technological issues aren’t the only disruption facing J. Crew. The company announced last week its chief executive officer, James Brett, is leaving the company, effective immediately. The sudden departure leaves the preppy retailer without a CEO this holiday season.
J. Crew has been looking to regain its footing after years of being criticized for losing touch with its core customer. Brett had taken the helm from retail icon Mickey Drexler, who remains chairman of the J.Crew board.
Black Friday for other retailers, though, seemingly got off to a better start.
Online sales on Thanksgiving totaled $3.7 billion, up 28 percent from a year ago, Adobe Analytics said in a report released Friday. That makes Thursday the fastest-growing day for e-commerce sales in history, added the firm, which tracks transactions from 80 of the top 100 internet retailers. Thursday was also the first day in 2018 to see $1 billion in sales from smartphones, according to Adobe, with shoppers spending 8 percent more online on Thursday compared with a year ago.
Kohl’s says it had a record day of sales online this Thanksgiving, having kicked off many of its Black Friday deals on its website at midnight that morning.
J. Crew did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
