“Black Friday” is America’s hottest retail weekend when the majority of the year’s sales are made. Tradition dictates that the Friday before Thanksgiving sees major discounts and sales across US retail.
Watchmouse conducted a survey of the 100 leading American retail websites to test availability in the month leading up to Thankgiving and the all important “Black Friday”. Uptime is an important factor in e-commerce but can be compromised by large numbers of visitors visiting a website at one time.
The major players – Amazon, Apple, BestBuy, Borders, Shopping.com and Walmart – all scored favourably, whilst American Eagle Outfitters, GiltGroupe, Footlocker.com and Fry’s Electronics were categorised as ‘unacceptable’ with less than 99.99% uptime.
Abercrombie and Fitch, Bulgari, JC Penney, Louis Vuitton, Office Max, Pottery Barn, Toys R Us, Williams-Sonoma, and Z Gallerie also experienced some performance issues with their websites on the big weekend.
The downtimes for the top 100 American retails websites were as follows:
| # | Website | Uptime percentage | Downtime per month |
| 1 | Amazon.com | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Apple | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Balenciaga | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Bestbuy | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Bloomingdales | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Blue Nile | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Borders | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Calvin Klein | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Circuit City | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Dior | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | eBay | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Half.com | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Hugo Boss | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | IKEA | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | J Crew | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Karmaloop | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Kohl’s | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Lands’ End | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Macy’s | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Neiman Marcus | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Overstock | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | QVC | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Saks Fifth Avenue | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Sony | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Victoria’s Secret | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | WalMart | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 1 | Zappos | 100 | 0 minutes |
| 28 | American Apparel | 99.99 | 4 minutes |
| 28 | Barnes & Noble | 99.99 | 4 minutes |
| 28 | Bergdorf Goodman | 99.99 | 4 minutes |
| 28 | Brookstone | 99.99 | 4 minutes |
| 28 | Dell | 99.99 | 4 minutes |
| 28 | Gucci | 99.99 | 4 minutes |
| 28 | Hermes | 99.99 | 4 minutes |
| 28 | New Egg | 99.99 | 4 minutes |
| 28 | PRADA | 99.99 | 4 minutes |
| 28 | Ralph Lauren | 99.99 | 4 minutes |
| 28 | Samsonite | 99.99 | 4 minutes |
| 28 | Sharper Image | 99.99 | 4 minutes |
| 28 | Staples | 99.99 | 4 minutes |
| 28 | Versace | 99.99 | 4 minutes |
| 28 | Shopping.com | 99.99 | 4 minutes |
| 43 | Costco | 99.97 | 13 minutes |
| 43 | Eddie Bauer | 99.97 | 13 minutes |
| 43 | Kate Spade | 99.97 | 13 minutes |
| 43 | HP | 99.97 | 13 minutes |
| 43 | Virgin Records | 99.97 | 13 minutes |
| 48 | Buy.com | 99.96 | 18 minutes |
| 48 | Dick’s Sporting Goods | 99.96 | 18 minutes |
| 48 | Kenneth Cole | 99.96 | 18 minutes |
| 48 | NineWest | 99.96 | 18 minutes |
| 48 | Tumi | 99.96 | 18 minutes |
| 53 | Net-a-Porter | 99.95 | 22 minutes |
| 53 | Anthropologie | 99.95 | 22 minutes |
| 53 | Sears | 99.95 | 22 minutes |
| 56 | Target | 99.94 | 27 minutes |
| 57 | Barney’s | 99.92 | 36 minutes |
| 57 | Dillards | 99.92 | 36 minutes |
| 57 | Juicy Couture | 99.92 | 36 minutes |
| 57 | Restoration Hardware | 99.92 | 36 minutes |
| 57 | Radio Shack | 99.92 | 36 minutes |
| 57 | Sports Authority | 99.92 | 36 minutes |
| 63 | Coach | 99.91 | 40 minutes |
| 63 | Nike | 99.91 | 40 minutes |
| 63 | Nordstrom | 99.91 | 40 minutes |
| 63 | Crutchfield | 99.91 | 40 minutes |
| 63 | Steve Madden | 99.91 | 40 minutes |
| 68 | CDW | 99.9 | 45 minutes |
| 68 | BCBG | 99.9 | 45 minutes |
| 68 | GameStop | 99.9 | 45 minutes |
| 68 | Levi’s | 99.9 | 45 minutes |
| 72 | KMart | 99.88 | 54 minutes |
| 72 | Toys R Us | 99.88 | 54 minutes |
| 74 | Bed,Bath & Beyond | 99.87 | 58 minutes |
| 74 | RedEnvelope | 99.87 | 58 minutes |
| 76 | Dolce and Gabbana | 99.81 | 1 hour, 25 minutes |
| 76 | Hammacher Schlemmer | 99.81 | 1 hour, 25 minutes |
| 76 | VistaPrint | 99.81 | 1 hour, 25 minutes |
| 79 | Office Depot | 99.79 | 1 hour, 34 minutes |
| 80 | Bluefly | 99.78 | 1 hour, 38 minutes |
| 80 | Office Max | 99.78 | 1 hour, 38 minutes |
| 82 | Gap | 99.75 | 1 hour, 52 minutes |
| 82 | ShopBop | 99.75 | 1 hour, 52 minutes |
| 84 | Home Depot | 99.74 | 1 hour, 56 minutes |
| 85 | Laura Ashley | 99.73 | 2 hours, 1 minute |
| 86 | Abe Books | 99.69 | 2 hours, 18 minutes |
| 87 | Banana Republic | 99.63 | 2 hours, 45 minutes |
| 88 | Z Gallerie | 99.58 | 3 hours, 7 minutes |
| 89 | West Elm | 99.42 | 4 hours, 19 minutes |
| 89 | Abercrombie and Fitch | 99.42 | 4 hours, 19 minutes |
| 91 | Bulgari | 99.28 | 5 hours, 21 minutes |
| 92 | Pottery Barn | 99.18 | 6 hours, 6 minutes |
| 93 | Williams-Sonoma | 99.13 | 6 hours, 28 minutes |
| 94 | Guess | 99.12 | 6 hours, 33 minutes |
| 95 | JC Penney | 99.1 | 6 hours, 42 minutes |
| 96 | Louis Vuitton | 99 | 7 hours, 26 minutes |
| 97 | Fry’s Electronics | 98.99 | 7 hours, 31 minutes |
| 98 | Footlocker | 98.95 | 7 hours, 49 minutes |
| 99 | Gilt Groupe | 98.35 | 12 hours, 17 minutes |
| 100 | American Eagle Outfitters | 96.92 | 22 hours, 55 minutes |
