In 2012 Clik Frenzy promised millions of shoppers, what retailers got was crashed servers and some very “pissed off” customers, the event became known as “Clikfail”.
In 2012 the Melbourne based Company promised millions in
revenues, but all retailers got was $30M spread across over multiple retailers.
Now Clik Frenzy is at it again, this time they are
predicting over $100M in revenue.
Adobe who are primarily a creative tools software Company
and whose research of the mobile phone transaction market has already been
labelled a “dud” (see separate story here) has gone even further,
they are predicting the event will generate $189 million to $200 million in
online sales this year – a big jump from previous years.
Click Frenzy co-founder Grant Arnott said about 2 million
shoppers were expected to participate in the event, with 1 million already
signed up to its database, and more than 300 brands participating.
Shoppers visit the Click Frenzy website to access exclusive
offers on anything from clothes to electronics and are then redirected to
retailers’ own websites. Shoppers can also go to retailers’ sites directly.
Neither Harvey Norman, The Good Guys nor JB Hi Fi are
participating in the event however Dick Smith is.
Promoters are promising no glitches during this year’s
24-hour online shopping event which kicks off at 7pm (AEDT) on Tuesday.
Ruslan Kogan who man who bragged that Apple would pull out
of retail store sales this year has irked Click Frenzy organisers by running
jumping on their bandwagon and the promotional hype surrounding the Clik Frenzy
event.
Last year Click Frenzy sent online electronics retailer
Kogan a cease and desist letter for launching its “Kogan Frenzy”
event one day ahead of the official event.
Mr Arnott said there were “still legal matters to be
resolved” around Kogan breaching its trademark, and that these remained
“with our lawyers”. However a spokesperson for Kogan said the retailer was
unaware of any ongoing “legal stoush” with Click Frenzy, and the
matter was “not currently with Kogan’s lawyers”.
Kogan is pushing ahead with its “Kogan Frenzy”
promotion on Tuesday at 8am (AEDT), 11 hours ahead of the official Click Frenzy
event.
Mr Arnott told Fairfax Media the 2014 event would
“absolutely” run smoothly, and that it had “bounced back”
from its “semi-disastrous start” in 2012.
“We’ve taken every measure ever since the first event
to ensure we’ve had constant service and there hasn’t really been a problem
ever since then,” Mr Arnott said.
Reports that the website had crashed during last year’s
event were “definitely not true”, he said.
“We were live right throughout the event in 2013,”
he said, but conceded some retailers’ sites had once again “failed around
Click Frenzy”.
Michelle Hutchison from Finder.com.au, said it was the
organisers’ responsibility to ensure customers had good experiences during the
event – particularly if they were not frequent online shoppers, and could be
turned off by one bad experience.
“Each year, Click Frenzy has anti-climaxed for many
consumers, who were angered by the site’s quality to handle the traffic,”
Ms Hutchison said.
The site was so slow as to be virtually unusable, she said,
and in her own experience “all the good items were gone” by the time
she finally got access.
