UPDATE: Takealot has issued an apology to customers and says the website will be back online as soon as possible.
The https://t.co/FoxSAGgqv7 website and apps are temporarily down.
We’re so sorry for disappointing any customers who are trying to shop this Black Friday, and we’ll be back up and running as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/i5XS8YR6eo— takealot (@TAKEALOT) November 24, 2017
Original story
Another year, another Black Friday sale and like previous years online retailers are battling to cope with the strain presented by everybody with an internet connection looking for a deal.
One of South Africa’s larger online retailers Takealot appears to be struggling to get its website online.
The problems began earlier this morning when shoppers were unable to access the website or Takealot’s app.
Takealot staggered traffic in a bid to allow some shoppers to make purchases but that seems to have stopped completely now.
At time of writing navigating to the Takealot website returns the message “takealot.com is temporarily unavailable due to scheduled maintenance.”
However, according to the firm the problem with the website is not related to maintenance but rather an increase in traffic to the website.
The @TAKEALOT website and apps are temporarily down due to overwhelming volumes. We’re working hard to resolve the issue and we hope to have the site operational as soon as possible. We apologise for any disappointment and we’ll have you back shopping ASAP.
— takealot (@TAKEALOT) November 24, 2017
One would think that by now online retailers would be able to figure out that websites will be swarmed on Black Friday.
Oh well, there’s always next year to get it right, right?