Friday, November 28, 2008

Stocks Rise but Sears Website Stalls on Black Friday

Bargain Hunters hit the stores with cash in hand today, as the annual doorbuster sales blowout known as Black Friday commenced. Stocks for major retailers haven't drastically fluctuate up or down,and the Dow was up 102 points as of 1:45 p.m.

Sears' (NASDAQ:SHLD)investors and executives must have cringed at when sears.com stalled due to high traffic volume. (High traffic is obviously a great sign-but imagine all the potential revenue lost when those online shoppers went to a competitors's site, such as Wal-Mart or Target).
Highlights for Sear's sale include Panasonic's Viera model 40-inch HD flatscreen,and the website issue couldn't have come at a worse time for Panasonic (NYSE:PC). This morning, the electronics manufacturer announced a 40% change to its profit forecast for 2008. As of 1:45 p.m., almost 2 hours after Sears' doorbuster sale ended, Panasonic was down -2.71 points (-18.50%).
According to CNBC's team of on-site reporters at Best Buy(NYSE:BBY), many customers were buying the bulk of the gifts on their list and many were paying in cash-which could indicate a shorter-span to the holiday shopping season.If many shoppers plan one-stop shopping today, the rest of the sales season could be painfully slow for retailers.

By Matt O'Hern at 01:45 PM | Comments (3)

(3) Thoughts on Stocks Rise but Sears Website Stalls on Black Friday

I tried to login to Sears.com to get the washer/dryer combo deal for 6+ hours and the site was down. Not sure where they came up with the 2 hour outage. Terribly disappointing.

Comments by Lona Rega : Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 02:12 AM

I just called Sears and placed my order when the website was down. No big deal. They apologized and took my order over the phone and said it would be delivered next week. Great customer service and great deals.

Comments by Robert Stinnett : Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 03:19 AM

Time for a new IT staff if they cant predict traffic.

Comments by CIO : Sunday, December 19, 2010 at 12:00 PM

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