Retailers who were unable to log into Shopify on Cyber Monday have been left frustrated by the e-commerce giant’s lack of communication and are calling for some form of reimbursement for the outage.
Cyber Monday is one of the most important days of the year for many retailers, including Super Anime Store, a Florida-based retailer of anime collectibles and toys. “It’s substantial enough to balance out the whole year,” said CEO and founder Allan Lobo. “So, messing it up? It’s catastrophic.”
Talking Points
- Shopify had a record-breaking Cyber Monday as its merchants brought in US$14.6 billion in sales despite an hours-long outage that caused headaches for some
- Retailers using Shopify’s platform criticized the company’s lack of communication about the outage with some requesting compensation for lost sales
The technical issues took roughly six per cent off Shopify’s share price on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq, though it has since recovered.
Shopify declined a request for comment. Shopify spokesperson Caty Gray referred to an X post from its support account which explained “a system degradation” had caused a temporary outage of backend services for some merchants, as well as making its point-of-sale system not work briefly.
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Gray also pointed to an X post from CEO Tobi Lütke claiming that entrepreneurs had “won” Black Friday and Cyber Monday, highlighting US$14.6 billion in sales globally from Shopify merchants over the Black Friday weekend, up 27 per cent from last year. Lütke also acknowledged “some issues” with Shopify’s backend.
Lobo was at one of Super Anime Store’s stores on Monday morning when he tried to log into his Shopify account and couldn’t sign in. He needed to access the account to see the orders that came in over the weekend so he and his staff could pack and ship them.
“We just started freaking out,” he said. Super Anime Store promises to deliver orders within five days, in part to compete with Amazon whose shipping times can be as fast as 30 minutes. Because of the login issues, he said, those orders will be delayed by at least a day.
Shereen Kassam, who also uses Shopify to sell products online, had a similar experience on the morning of Cyber Monday, receiving a standard error message when she tried to log in to her store through Shopify. She started to panic when she also couldn’t log in on Shopify’s mobile app.
She went to check Shopify’s status page only to find it showed everything was apparently working smoothly. “That’s when you really start to spin,” she said.
She sat at her computer, hitting refresh until an update appeared: partial outage for some services.
That status page was the bulk of communication merchants received from Shopify. Its support account on X also acknowledged an issue, but otherwise, merchants said they did not receive any email communication.
Some merchants locked out of their Shopify backend were also unable to speak to human support staff as doing so required accessing the same system that was not working. “They don’t have a phone number,” said Lobo. Kassam said she no longer contacts Shopify support for any issues as she never gets a response.
As the outage continued, Kassam watched emails from customers pile up in her inbox. People wanted to make changes to orders they had placed or were asking why their purchase hadn’t shipped yet, she said, and all the while, she couldn’t resolve any of the issues.
Lobo had hoped to add some more inventory to his online store on Monday and send out at least one Cyber Monday marketing email. Instead, he found himself locked out of his Shopify account for hours. “It was a complete standstill,” he said. “Without the backend we can not do anything.”
Another store, Betty Jane Candies, had to wait to add discounts it had planned for Cyber Monday.
On X, Shopify said Cyber Monday was like a “Black Friday’s victory lap,” with the replies littered with complaints about the outage. In another X post, president Harley Finkelstein wished everyone a “HAPPY CYBER MONDAY” and urged merchants to “finish strong.” In the replies, merchants said they were unable to process orders. “Literally can’t access anything this is trash,” wrote one disgruntled merchant.
“It seemed to be a little tone deaf,” said Mark William Lewis, founder and CEO of Netalico, an agency that helps companies grow on Shopify. At least half of his clients got in touch about problems they were having accessing their store backends, he said, explaining his clients couldn’t do customer service, modify products or turn on sale pricing.
He was surprised that Shopify’s executives, who post frequently on social media, didn’t immediately address the issue online or issue an apology alongside a more detailed explanation of what happened.
Both Lobo and Kassam think Shopify could have communicated better as the day unfolded. “As a merchant we’re told to over-communicate with our customers,” she said. “It’s interesting that we pay for these services and then nobody communicates with us.”
Some merchants, including Lobo, have demanded some type of credit or refund from Shopify. Lobo’s not hopeful he’ll receive anything, even if he feels it’s warranted. “Any other company that is promising 99.9 per cent of uptime and something goes down, they give you credit,” he said, citing a stat that Shopify itself touts. “But, in all honesty, I don’t expect it.”
