Investing

The Internet Becomes It Own Worst Enemey

(WMT)(AMZN)

t has been a  number of years since the Victoria’s Secret site was down due to the huge number of people who wanted to see the live introduction of its new lingerie line. It raised some doubt about whether the internet was the perfect ecommerce and marketing venue. But, as web hosting became more sophisticated, those problems seemed to fall away. Companie like Akamai seemed to solve the problems of web hosting and content transmission over the internet.

This holiday season has delivered a bit of a blow to the consumer’s confidence in the interent as the idea shopping center. Wal-Mart’s site was down for much of the day after Thankgiving. This was surely not what the struggling retailer needed. It posted a drop in same-store sales for November.

Amazon’s site was also down for part of the Thanksgiving shopping week.

Both outages were blamed on unanticipated spike in traffice. Of course, the hosting architecture of these sites and others is supposed to keep that from happening.

There are some online shoppers who will not be returning to the Wal-Mart site, at least this shopping season. They went somewhere else to make their purchases. Or, they are worried that if the site does not work, perhaps the "back end" of the system is flawed and they will not be sent what they could order after the Wal-Mart site came back up.

Either way, ecommerce has done a nice job of shotting itself in the foot.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own shares in companies that he writes about.

Want to Retire Early? Start Here (Sponsor)

Want retirement to come a few years earlier than you’d planned? Or are you ready to retire now, but want an extra set of eyes on your finances?

Now you can speak with up to 3 financial experts in your area for FREE. By simply clicking here you can begin to match with financial professionals who can help you build your plan to retire early. And the best part? The first conversation with them is free.

Click here to match with up to 3 financial pros who would be excited to help you make financial decisions.

 

Have questions about retirement or personal finance? Email us at [email protected]!

By emailing your questions to 24/7 Wall St., you agree to have them published anonymously on 247wallst.com.

By submitting your story, you understand and agree that we may use your story, or versions of it, in all media and platforms, including via third parties.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.