A massive slowdown in credit card and gift card processing was experienced by Macy’s on Black Friday, creating a setback that might hurt sales significantly and could cause the chain of department stores to lose large sums of money as the holiday shopping season starts with its four-day Thanksgiving Day weekend.
However, Macy’s according to a statement published by TechCrunch has resolved its problem. The statement TechCrunch released has Macy’s saying it resolved its system issues and sincerely apologizes for the inconvenience it may have caused during their valued customers’ shopping experience.
Macy’s said the delays experience on the afternoon of Black Friday were related to a capacity issue that caused a certain number of transactions to take far longer than normal to process, but it does not anticipate any further delays.
However, the timing of the slowdown, as well as the vocal and disgruntled shoppers at Macy’s who took to social media is a huge black eye that could hurt as retail has become more and more cutthroat due to the huge gains made in 2017 by e-commerce.
One customer at Macy’s tweeted that she had left $300 in items on the counter due to the credit card machines being down at State Street Chicago.
This year’s Christmas shopping season is a make-it or break-it period for Macy’s, as the retailer has 11 straight quarters of same-store sales declines and its stock has dropped 70% from its price in 2015.
The holiday season represents for some retailers as much as 40% of their annual sales due to attracting so many to come out and shop.
Last year, the website of Macy’s buckled due to an overload of online traffic for its deals on both Black Friday as well as Cyber Monday.
Looking to fix those issues, CEO Jeff Gennette implemented a plan referred to as the North Star that was aimed at not only positioning Macy’s as a store, but an authority on gift-giving.
Of course, the problems occurred on Black Friday, but it was only the first day of the season’s shopping rush and there are plenty more customers, deals and sales that will be made.
