Basically, Click Frenzy expected
500,000 visitors to their site at one time but 2 million attempted to log on
and the site crashed. There were some understandable reservations on how
Australian consumers might react to an online event. The US has the luxury of a
track record of successful Cyber Monday sales so they know what to expect.
Their consumers come off a catalog mentality that goes back decades.
Australians haven’t yet embraced an
online event of this magnitude although our high placing in technological
take-ups should have been some indication to Click Frenzy organisers. There is another big difference between the US event and our own. Retailers in the US start talking about their specials at least a week before the event. Shoppers are able to pre-shop before joining the sale on the day and, even though it is listed as a one-day sale, many retailers allow customers to take advantage of specials over a longer period. In Australia we simply announced an event with very little exposure to actual deals. Participants (or what turned out to be wanne-be participants) had to go in blind and look at everything at the last minute. No wonder there was overload.
Nevertheless, the consumer interest
was encouraging and getting the capacity right could bode well for future
events.