In Blog by Josh Carter / November 26, 2018
Black Friday online sales reached $6.22B. That’s a 23.6% increase from last year.
But with the increase in shopping activity, many retailers experienced website outages and slow-downs, including Lowe’s, Walmart, and J.Crew.
Here’s what shoppers saw when they visited Lowes.com at certain points Black Friday:
Collectively, the top 500 eCommerce sites slowed down by 6% on average between Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday.
To make matters worse, IBM Digital Analytics (formerly Coremetrics) had an outage on Black Friday that caused website slow-downs at major retailers, including Dillard’s, Victoria’s Secret, and Tractor Supply.
This report is based on Home Page measurements run by Blue Triangle’s Synthetic Monitoring.
Rank the speeds of the Top 500 eCommerce sites Black Friday – Cyber Monday.
Nearly every retail vertical experienced slow-downs between Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday.
| Vertical | Thanksgiving Day Page Speed (sec) | Black Friday Page Speed (sec) | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Specialty | 3.87 | 4.50 | 16% |
| Sporting Goods | 3.43 | 3.90 | 14% |
| Toys/Hobbies | 4.19 | 4.57 | 9% |
| Automotive Parts/Accessories | 3.09 | 3.37 | 9% |
| Mass Merchant | 4.45 | 4.75 | 7% |
| Computers/Electronics | 3.96 | 4.23 | 7% |
| Office Supplies | 3.51 | 3.74 | 6% |
| Flowers/Gifts | 2.99 | 3.17 | 6% |
| Food/Drug | 4.77 | 5.04 | 6% |
| Apparel/Accessories | 4.01 | 4.21 | 5% |
| Hardware/Home Improvement | 3.47 | 3.65 | 5% |
| Health/Beauty | 4.06 | 4.24 | 4% |
| Housewares/Home Furnishings | 3.95 | 4.06 | 3% |
| Books/Music/Video | 3.23 | 3.32 | 3% |
| Jewelry | 4.14 | 3.98 | -4% |
The Victoria’s Secret website slowed down by a whopping 89%.
This was due to the IBM Digital Analytics (formerly Coremetrics) outage that impacted the website’s load time between 9:00am EST and 4:00pm EST.
The sites in red indicate those impacted by the IBM Digital Analytics outage.
| Site | Thanksgiving Day Page Speed (sec) | Black Friday Page Speed (sec) | % Change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aleva Stores | 4.03 | 15.86 | 293.55% | Specialty |
| US Mint | 1.89 | 5.12 | 170.90% | Specialty |
| Keurig | 3.93 | 10.48 | 166.67% | Food/Drug |
| West Marine | 3.63 | 8.79 | 142.15% | Sporting Goods |
| AmeriMark | 4.21 | 9.7 | 130.40% | Apparel/Accessories |
| Performance Bike | 3.21 | 7.24 | 125.55% | Sporting Goods |
| Tractor Supply | 4.03 | 9.07 | 125.06% | Hardware/Home Improvement |
| Dillards | 3.25 | 7.03 | 116.31% | Mass Merchant |
| Restoration Hardware | 4.42 | 9.15 | 107.01% | Housewares/Home Furnishings |
| Victorias Secret | 7.68 | 14.53 | 89.19% | Apparel/Accessories |
| Oriental Trading | 3.56 | 6.65 | 86.80% | Flowers/Gifts |
| PC Connection | 5.85 | 10.8 | 84.62% | Computers/Electronics |
| Venus | 2.92 | 5.33 | 82.53% | Apparel/Accessories |
| Orvis | 4.28 | 7.71 | 80.14% | Apparel/Accessories |
| Vera Bradley | 4.26 | 7.64 | 79.34% | Apparel/Accessories |
| Team Express Distributing | 4.72 | 8.09 | 71.40% | Sporting Goods |
| Advance Auto Parts | 2.26 | 3.81 | 68.58% | Automotive Parts/Accessories |
| Neiman Marcus | 5.7 | 8.38 | 47.02% | Apparel/Accessories |
| APMEX | 3.32 | 4.86 | 46.39% | Specialty |
| Pep Boys | 4.6 | 6.55 | 42.39% | Automotive Parts/Accessories |
| Site | Thanksgiving Day Page Speed (sec) | Black Friday Page Speed (sec) | % Change | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Talbots | 3.23 | 1.55 | -52.01% | Apparel/Accessories |
| AED Superstore | 9.63 | 5.1 | -47.04% | Specialty |
| Bebe | 2.61 | 1.53 | -41.38% | Apparel/Accessories |
| J. Crew | 4.48 | 2.72 | -39.29% | Apparel/Accessories |
| Turn5 | 2.58 | 1.61 | -37.60% | Automotive Parts/Accessories |
| 1800PetMeds.com | 3.95 | 2.66 | -32.66% | Specialty |
| Barneys | 4.86 | 3.44 | -29.22% | Apparel/Accessories |
| The North Face | 3.62 | 2.67 | -26.24% | Apparel/Accessories |
| Eileen Fisher | 4.65 | 3.43 | -26.24% | Apparel/Accessories |
| Hammacher | 3.62 | 2.77 | -23.48% | Mass Merchant |
| Belk | 5.98 | 4.6 | -23.08% | Apparel/Accessories |
| Cabelas | 6.49 | 5.11 | -21.26% | Sporting Goods |
| Diamond Nexus | 3.86 | 3.08 | -20.21% | Jewelry |
| Fitbit | 3.08 | 2.46 | -20.13% | Sporting Goods |
| Gemvara | 7.29 | 5.89 | -19.20% | Jewelry |
| UnbeatableSale.com | 2.64 | 2.15 | -18.56% | Mass Merchant |
| Vitimin Shoppe | 4.89 | 4.02 | -17.79% | Food/Drug |
| FlexShopper | 3.5 | 2.91 | -16.86% | Computers/Electronics |
| FTD | 3.92 | 3.26 | -16.84% | Flowers/Gifts |
| Mens Wearhouse | 2.15 | 1.79 | -16.74% | Apparel/Accessories |
Blue Triangle is working with major retailers like The Home Depot and Lenovo this holiday season to ensure peak performance and optimal revenue.
See where the top 500 retailers stack up weekly: Access the Retail Digital Experience Index
Should you have any questions, comments or concerns, please send me an email: josh@bluetriangle.com.
