• by Ray Schultz , November 28, 2017

J. Crew has recovered from a website outage on one of the biggest shopping days of the year: Cyber Monday.

“We're back!,” the company tweeted on Tuesday morning. "Our 40% off + extra 10% off Cyber Monday sale is on and extended through midnight. Happy shopping! http://jcrew.co/WLik30gQy4n"

The outage was caused by heavy customer traffic.

"Our site’s experiencing more traffic than usual, but you’ll be able to get back to shopping shortly,” the J. Crew site said on Monday. “Thanks for your patience — sorry for the inconvenience."

The outage occurred a week after the clothing retailer said it would close 39 stores by the end of January, judging by media reports.  

International Business Times reported that “the clothing retailer J. Crew were surprised Monday when the company's website wouldn't allow them to log in or place their orders.”

The outage also hurt the firm’s ability to send email follow-ups. International Business Times continued. “Some shoppers didn't get a confirmation email after they placed their orders even if their payment seemed confirmed,” it reported.

Some customers “panicked” when they couldn’t get access to the sales, Business Insider reports.  

The Cyber Monday discounts included 40% off purchases and 10% for those made before noon Monday EST, according to International Business Times. 

This outage mirrors an episode that occurred during the holiday shopping season last year. The J. Crew website was down for several hours on Monday around the Christmas holiday, Reuters reported.

The cause was unclear, but RetailDive speculated that “if history is any guide, it’s likely J. Crew’s website was simply unprepared for the barrage of post-holiday traffic.” 

In its 2017 third-quarter earnings report, J. Crew stated that total revenue had fallen by 5% to $566.7 million YOY, and sales by 12 to $430.4 million.