Walmart's website malfunctioned and showed every single item out of stock, some Black Friday shoppers said

Advertisement
Walmart's website malfunctioned and showed every single item out of stock, some Black Friday shoppers said
Walmart.com could not put items into carts temporarily on Black FridayAllana Akhtar/Insider
  • Walmart shoppers said they temporarily could not put items into their cart during Black Friday.
  • Many big box retailers received fewer crowds during Black Friday compared to past years.
Advertisement

Shoppers reported having issues buying products on Walmart.com during the company's Black Friday sales event.

Downdetector, the metric-monitoring company Ookla's firm for tracking site outages, received more than 300 reports of outages on Walmart.com around 3:30 p.m. EST. The website appeared to be working again around 4:30 p.m.

Some users were temporarily unable to add all items to their cart. Others said items would display being "temporarily out of stock" when users tried to make purchases.

Insider could not add multiple food, electronic, or children's items to a cart on Walmart.com at around 4 p.m. EST.

Walmart traditionally offers deeply discounted Black Friday prices on electronics, food, and clothing. Though shoppers in the past camped outside the retailer to score Black Friday deals, Walmart is seeing fewer in-store shoppers this year at some locations, according to Insider's Mary Meisenzahl and other reports.

Advertisement

Many big-box retailers received fewer crowds during Black Friday, per on-the-ground video and photo coverage.

Analysts had warned product shortages stemming from the ongoing supply chain crisis would result in less products on the shelf. Some stores offered fewer discounts to offset shipping delays: Adobe projected holiday discounts would range from 5% to 25%, down from the 10% to 30% average in previous years.

Despite supply chain issues, Walmart offered among the cheapest prices on items in most categories compared to competitors during the holiday season, second to Amazon.

Walmart was not immediately available for comment.

This is a developing story.

Advertisement
{{}}