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Target website, apps overwhelmed by Lilly Pulitzer shoppers

Target took its website off line for about 20 minutes in the dark hours of Sunday morning as early shoppers scanned through Lilly Pulitzer bathing suits, shift dresses and jumpsuits before stores opened at 8 a.m.

April 21, 2015

Target’s website went down Sunday morning, overwhelmed by shoppers clamoring for a piece of a Lilly Pulitzer collection that was selling for a fraction of the price of the Palm Beach label’s luxury clothes, Target spokesman Joshua Thomas said in a statement.

The surge in demand for the 250-item line showed the battered discounter can still summon up some of the “Tar-zhay” glitz that helped the retailer grow into a national chain, but it also underscored that Target still has a way to go before its website is robust enough to fight off rivals like Amazon.com Inc.

Target took its website off line for about 20 minutes in the dark hours of Sunday morning as early shoppers scanned through Lilly Pulitzer bathing suits, shift dresses and jumpsuits before stores opened at 8 a.m.

At other times during the morning, Target paced visits to the site, leaving many shoppers unable to access it or a shopping app. The company also delayed the online launch by two hours.

“When the traffic got heavier, we made the website inaccessible,” Target spokesman Joshua Thomas said in a statement. Target planned to have the sale up fully live at 3 a.m. Central, but delayed it until 5 a.m. because of high traffic,  Thomas said. The number of visits was similar to Black Friday sales around Thanksgiving. Three hours into the sale, the entire selection was nearly sold out.