Nordstrom Suffers Website Glitch During Pre-Anniversary Sale

Nordstrom’s website suffered some glitches during the company’s pre-anniversary sale on Thursday, causing consumers’ virtual carts to be emptied at checkout. A Nordstrom spokeswoman said that the company is offering its Nordstrom credit and debit cardholders 10 points per dollar spent on anniversary sale purchases made on July 13 and July 14 in recognition of the “inconvenience they may have experienced.” The anniversary sale begins on July 21, however, Nordstrom cardholders got early access to the special deals.

Total Retail’s Take: What a terrible day for Nordstrom to have a website crash. Some frustrated shoppers took to social media to vent about their experiences on Nordstrom's site. One person said it was “unbelievable” that Nordstrom’s site wasn’t ready to handle an increase in traffic in what's traditionally one of the bigger days of the year for the department store chain. This should be a lesson to all retailers, especially as they prepare for the busy upcoming holiday shopping season: load test your website to ensure it's ready for the influx of shoppers.