Click Frenzy – the Aussie online retail world’s version of the USA’s Cyber Monday – was a disaster at its first attempt last year, with computers crashing and networks collapsing as thousands of bargain hunters tried to log on. This week’s effort was better, but some big-name retailers were missing.
The apparently more modest June 25 attempt pushed the notion of an end-of-financial-year online sale, with Internet accelerator Akamai lending a hand at many sites.
Some of last year’s big names – David Jones, for instance, and Myer – were conspicuously absent, with both companies appointing IBM to deliver new online infrastructure after the collapse of their networks in November, when the original Click Frenzy stunt was run.
But the likes of pyjama peddler Peter Alexander, electronics flogger Bing Lee, booze merchant Dan Murphy’s and a bundle of lesser-known garment, bling and perfume sellers were joining in – and apparently prepared, network-wise, for the rush.
Few appear to have crashed under the weight, though many of the advertised “bargains” were sold out by the time early evening buyers got online.
On the electronics side, Dell laptops were being promoted with an offer of 40% off the advertised price; Bing Lee offered a 60cm LG plasma TV at $1155; and MobilCiti was pushing Samsung’s Galaxy S4 smartphone at $719, compared with a RRP of $899.
Observers claim the poor publicity surrounding the original Click Frenzy event had led many consumers to avoid the second event, due to poor service surrounding the first event.
Click Frenzy director Grant Arnott says the group’s latest sale used the global hosting firm Akamai to deliver content after their original ISP was unable to deliver a stable ISP enviroment during the first sale.
Mr Arnott said the last Click Frenzy event, held for Mother’s Day, was smaller, but proved the website could operate without crashing.
“It was not the mayhem of the first one by any stretch, we were really impressed with how it went,” he said.
“This time, in terms of the number of brands and deals, we’ve got nearly double what we had for the first event.”
