Poor queuing, servers blamed for mega-sale crashes

For Kumar Das, a Bangalore-based marketing consultant, it was a feeling of déjà vu as he tried to cash in on Flipkart’s ‘Big Billion Day’ sale. The site was inaccessible and when he finally managed to log on, most of the items were ‘sold’. Even those he managed to book were later cancelled by the company.

For Das, this was history repeating itself. There have been at least 10 online crashes in the recent past, including Google’s Great Online Shopping Festival, which crashed on the very first day, last December.

The reason for such crashes is partly a queuing issue, resulting in an online stampede. Simply put, a server has a line of customers awaiting service. Every customer joins the queue at the end of the line. Ideally, as customers in front get served those behind are supposed to move forward.

“During a sale, massive spikes are experienced by the servers. When there is a surge in traffic, users are (supposed to be) smartly queued,” says Sanjay Mehta, a serial entrepreneur and technology evangelist. In a statement, Flipkart said it got a billion hits on Monday.

While “poor queuing” is the major glitch, bad servers also play a part. “Many of the online retailers have hosted their websites on poor performance servers, leading to bad accessibility, loading time and transaction hurdles,” says Srikanth Chunduri, co-founder and COO of consumer engagement company eMart Solutions.

“A number of ‘online window shoppers’ also join the fray, increasing the load. Further, I don’t think any of these online retailers have anticipated this kind of rush,” says Anil Talreja, Partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells.

Flipkart is not alone. There are numerous instances of IRCTC’s online rail-ticket booking site crashing during Tatkal booking. Last year, Groupon India’s site crashed after it offered onions at ₹9 a kg at a time when prices had soared as high as ₹80 at the local vegetable market.

In August, national carrier Air India’s website collapsed within minutes of offering tickets for ₹100, and later, in September, the Delhi Development Authority’s site crashed following a rush for its housing scheme.

However, there are ways to prevent such crashes using technology, says eMart’s Chunduri. Many experts say e-tailers need to create different URLs for specific events.

With an Assocham survey saying that online shopping may increase by 350 per cent during Diwali, crossing ₹10,000 crore, it’s high time the companies figured out how to cope with the surge.