Missoni for Target just launched earlier today and their site crashed. Good thing for me, I was in Vietnam so I was wide awake and on the site right when it went live. So what did I do? I scored myself the awesome Missoni Bike and some other things in two, separate orders at different times! Unfortunately for others, they were either getting too frustrated staying up late and seeing a blank page, or they woke up too late just to be welcomed by Target.com error page. So How did I do it? I installed a browser refresher plugin for Firefox and I let a few pages load automatically every 1 minute while I was doing other things on the Internet. I had the main homepage, Missoni page, Missoni limited items page, and bike page loading in separate tabs. When the site went live, I was exactly where I needed to be. Not to mention that I had already added a few Target items (long and lean Mossimo tank tops) to my shopping cart and had all of my information filled out until the last step of the checkout page — this made it quicker for me to checkout later with the Missoni items because I didn’t have to fill in anymore information. If it wasn’t for my clever Mister Man, I wouldn’t have been so savvy :)
Question of the Day: Do you think Target should have limited the number of items people could purchase online and in stores?
Continue reading to find out how Target could provide a better user-experience for its online users.
So what was all this hype about?
Target has been gearing up for this launch since early Spring of this year. When the news came out that Missoni was collaborating with Target, the fashion blogosphere went haywire! Everyone was talking and blogging about the launch up until today. First, #Missonifortarget was trending on Twitter about the anticipation of the launch and how people were looking forward to it — then, people started to complain about seeing a blank page and not being able to access the Missoni section on Target.com — soon after the live launch, the site crashed. So did Target do this purposely or where they poorly prepared? I think the latter.
Target's message after the website crashed.
Well, by not telling people the time of the live launch, I think Target wanted to avoid their site from getting crashed. Too bad for you Target, you should know by now that “fashionistas” are, if not, the craziest consumers. They will wait in line, they will stay up all night, they will do whatever it takes to get their hands on some luxury, limited items — especially when it’s affordable and from a well-known, high-end fashion house! Either way, the website still crashed.
What could Target have done to be better prepared?
- Announce the time of its launch. People stayed up all night and became frustrated not knowing when the launch was. This left a bad user-experience and got people complaining all throughout social media. Perhaps this was done on purpose just like what Jex Wexler, manager of a fashion consultancy agency, was hinting to in his quote on a Forbes article about Target’s Missoni madness.
- Have its servers be geared up for the launch. Target.com should have known about the anticipation and how thousands of people would inundate its site. For the site to crash moments after the launch, people were even more frustrated — especially the ones that stayed up all night or the ones that woke up early and ditched work or school for it.
- @TargetStyle should have been all night answering peoples’ questions and complaints to avoid misunderstanding. Next time, keep someone awake to answer all @TargetStyle and @Target questions in regards to the launch. This will help them stay a little more patient and be less frustrated.
- Set up a @MissoniforTarget Twitter account so that people can go there too since it was one of the most trending hash tag (#) for this particular launch. This would have made it easier for Target to answer Missoni questions vs. general questions from people who were not trying to access the Missoni collection.
- Do not place the “Missoni for Target is here” banner at the top of the site when it really wasn’t available yet. This banner totally misled people so it made them upset that they kept seeing a blank Missoni page. Instead, Target.com should let people know that it should be “coming soon” or “coming in a few minutes so hold on tight” or “currently loading up Missoni items, check back in a few minutes.” Also, next time Target.com should have a better landing page available than a blank Missoni page — again, bad user experience.
- If you’re going to put up all of your products, make sure that your photos are all working. When I clicked on the small thumbnails to get different views of the product, the image was not available! Again, bad user experience.
- If you say Free Shipping, then mean it! After checking out a few Missoni items to purchase, I was still charged for shipping. Each item had already said “free shipping with orders over $50.” My order was over $50. I will
- If you’re going to email your customers about delayed shipments and tell them go check out a link to approve the shipment, make sure there’s actually an option to approve it on the order details page.
- Improve your process for users to check their order details on Target.com. In order for me to check the status of my order, I must click on the link of my email from Target and I’m taken to a page where the order number has already been entered for me so what’s left is for me to enter my email. After I enter my email, I’m taken to a page that say I must check my email to get the link to access the order details page. How inefficient is this?
Missoni for Target - Poor User Experience.
No Image - Thumbnails are visible but larger versions of the photos aren't.
Missoni for Target Sweater Skirt - See the free shipping note?
Oversight on Target.com's end. This shipping should be corrected.
So, the next time anyone thinks about hyping up a launch, be prepared… really prepared.
Or you know what would’ve been cool? If Target used Ikea’s Showroom idea and did something similar — this would’ve created a lot of hype and it would have been a much more positive, social media experience for users.
Even with all of the complaints and disgruntled women who couldn’t get what they wanted from Missoni for Target, this was a very successful collaboration due to all of the hype and press. I would be curious to see what the sales figures are from this partnership.
Thanks for reading! I hope you learned something from this post in regards to creating hype and launching new products online.
- Hong Vo
PS. Here are the lovely items I was able to snag on Target.com :)
$600 later...
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I ordered two bikes, one for myself and another to my daughter, shipped to a separate address. I completed the transaction by 6:20 AM EDT and received an E mail confirmation that the purchase was made.
Later that day I got a notice that my order was canceled. No reason given. No more bikes of course. I did put in orders after that time that did get filled and some are on their way from shipping.
I am very very disappointed and frustrated. Over an hour with customer service, even getting transferred to an American manager. They don’t know if they will make more or if people who got cancelled will get priority.
I am boycotting Target from now on – horrible and stupid roll-out. A total disaster. At 400 each these is a LOT of margin in the those bikes (they are cute, but without the paint would sell for less than half that amount). I can’t respect a company that can so easily mess up on such a high margin item.
Marti, that is very unfortunate! You ordered the two bikes quite early too! According to TargetStyle on Twitter, if your order was confirmed via email then that should have been a guaranteed. If you have the email saved, I really hope you follow up because this is a mistake on their end and they should do whatever it takes to fix it. Customer loyalty is very important for brands these days, especially in this economy. It would be terrible for Target to lose its customers over this Missoni campaign.
I really hope you eventually get those two bikes!
never had a worse experience and I am so disappointed in Target. Target must have sold items not stocked because everything I ordered at 4am on the Target website has been delayed 2 times and the emails indicate if delayed again my items will be cancelled. Got emails that said to go into order details to approve the delay shipment date but when I tried to do this the interent site froze or there was no button to do this.So I had to calll the customer service line 2 times and wait 30 minutes and then 45 minutes. The 1st call I was told I could not cancel anything and my 3 orders were in process of being shipped and by the next day I got emaisl that in fact the items had not shipped. This means either Target sold items not in stock or gave them to others . I stayed up all night and took a vacation day for this and I really expect to get my Missoni items. All Target has said is shorry for the inconvenience.Am I the only one who has been getting emails that myu 9/13/11 early AM orders could be eventually cancelled? while all along Target has the advertisements on TV and says this launch was a success? I understand if they do not have anymore inventory because that could be Missoni decision not to give anymore items but I believe they have to honor the orders they already said were in stock.
Cindy, I understand what you’re going though — I had a very similar process with my second order on Target. Still, I do not know where to “approve” the new delayed shipping date. I’m not sure what will happen to my order but at this point, I may just cancel the order and have my money be in my bank rather than “pending” this entire time.
This was a successful collaboration due to Target selling everything, however, very unsuccessful because so many customers are unhappy. I am sure Target is aware of this and is probably thinking of solutions. I also believe that this is a lesson for Target’s IT team — they could have done a better job with the online orders and inventory tracking to ensure that they didn’t oversell anything. I hope you eventually get everything you ordered.
I also was so disappointed in the way the store handled it, I wanted to purchase the bike you posted and they didnt even get that color in the store, they should have said that in the ads. I went to the store bright and early with the crazy women grabbing everything in site, pushing everyone making rude comments to others. It was a terrible experience, saw Tori Spelling there she had a basket filled of stuff as well. They should have limited the items you could buy, not fair to others.Im hoping they will get the bike in again but dont know how to find that out.
Belinda, I am sorry to hear about your experience. Target definitely could have done a better job with the way they advertised so that people would not feel misled. If success to them meant selling everything quickly, then they definitely hit the mark — but if success to them was to make people happy, then I think they failed due to all of the complaints and frustrated people. When Lanvin teamed up with H&M — they said they would never do that again because so many people were disappointed that they couldn’t get the items they wanted. They didn’t like the fact that they let their fans down.
As far as the bike, I know a lot of people wanted it and according to TargetStyle on Twitter — once the online items are out, they’re out. If there were other things you wanted from the actual store, they should be replenishing their inventory up until October 22nd I believe.
So disappionted with Target! Went to the actual store this morning and there was Nothing left! They should not have spent the money on ads and hyped it the way they did just as a teaser. Went online right after store and most sold out.
Lauren, I’m sorry about your disappointment — I’m sure hundreds of other people are feeling the same way! What were item(s) were you looking for in particular from the Missoni for Target Collection?
So frustrated by Target for it’s lack of preparedness. They should know better. They also could have taken pre-orders so they would have had a very good didea of the demand and could have stopped the crash!!!! It is 2011, get with tecnology.
Aw, I really hope you get something you wanted from the website. Depending on what browser you are using, you should download a “page refresher” plugin — it will refresh the target page automatically for you at whichever time interval you would like. This is what I did so I didn’t have to sit there to manual refresh — I was browsing other sites while I was waiting.