What You Can Learn From Target's Site Crash

Careful investigation into the origins and impact of the incident reveal important lessons for all online retailers. Ultimately, failing to prepare for an incident like this isn't an option for merchants striving for success in today’s connected consumer market.

What Happened?
Keynote Systems’ measurements of Target’s website indicated that traffic began overwhelming the retailer's site around 8:00 a.m. EDT. The intense wave of traffic initially resulted in server errors. Target's operations team quickly responded by serving friendly error messages around 8:14 a.m. After that, only about 7 percent of visitors were able to successfully reach Target's homepage throughout the remainder of the day. “Fail puppy” error pages were still being measured by Keynote well into the following day.