Black Friday Web Traffic Kills Websites

As we all know, Black Friday is the time where people looking for great deals run to stores at 4AM to take advantage of 50%-off sales. However, this year, it took a particularly high toll on the internet, which does not require you to be at the store at 4AM to take advantage of deals. As people rushed to such sites as Lowe's and Macy's to buy stuff, servers crumpled under the load. And when they crumpled, they crumpled where it hurt users most: at transaction points. Some sites suffered a ridiculous 400% slowdown as a result of Black Friday sales, which caused some customers to abandon their product search/purchase. Some sites were even temporarily shut down due to Black Friday traffic, such as esteemed technology retailer Newegg.