Apica Lists 7 Most Stunning Website Failures of 2011

Apica, a provider of load testing and performance monitoring for cloud and mobile applications, offers its list of the “Seven Most Stunning Website Failures of 2011”.

“This year’s list proves that ongoing website failures and performance problems are costing companies lost revenues and damaged reputations. As you can see, even the biggest in the business are suffering. When a website goes down, an online business has effectively shut its doors and is left wondering ‘Will that visitor ever come back?’", said Sven Hammar, Website Performance Optimization Expert and CEO for Apica. “Website failures and performance problems can be minimized greatly by simply, conducting on-going testing and monitoring to avoid being the next big failure story.”

The following high profile events and related website crashes made Apica’s “Seven Most Stunning Website Failures of 2011:”

1. Tickets for London 2012 Olympics Available for Purchase

In June, the Olympic committee announced 2.3 million tickets were available for purchase for the 2012 London Olympics. Excited fans rushed the site to find “Sorry, we can not process your request at this time” messaging because the website could not handle the rush of visitors.

2. New York City Offers Government Website for Hurricane Irene

The New York City website crashed amid overwhelming visitor volume encouraged by Mayor Michael Bloomberg who strongly urged the public to use the website for information on Hurricane Irene in August.

3. Target.com Launches Missoni Collection

The much anticipated launch of the Missoni Collection at Target in September was a huge failure when the Target.com site crashed due to high traffic, rendering the entire website inoperable for hours. Target experienced a repeat crash performance six weeks later when another rush of visitors hit the site.

4. Apple Launches iPhone 4S

In early October, iPhone 4S became available for purchase at the Apple Store. Huge spikes in website traffic throughout the day either downed the site or slowed it considerably, effectively halting tens of thousands of new phone purchases.

5. Bank of America Announces Monthly Fee for Debit Card Purchases

Bank of America’s website slowed considerable for 5 days in October when it was hit hard by customers flocking to the site after the banking giant announced it would be charging a $5 monthly fee for account holders who make purchases with their bank debit cards.

6. Disney Store Launches Limited Edition Princess Dolls

Disney.com crashed repeatedly due to high visitor volumes when it launched its limited edition of its princess dolls collection in October. Simple proactive testing for enormous peak loads for an expected "big seller" and this situation would be easily avoided.

7. H&M Launches New Versace Collection

Shoppers looking to purchase the new Versace Collection from H&M’s website in November were greeted with “We’re sorry, we are experiencing large number of visitors at the moment, please try again later” messaging.