Missoni Madness Crashes Target’s Web Site

The launch of the new collaborative line between Italian designer, Missoni and Target has resulted in the crash of the Web site of the mega-retailer on Tuesday.

Target.com is seeing greater item demand than we do on a typical Black Friday, and the excitement for this limited-time designer collection is unprecedented, the store said in a statement.

The Target.com homepage was completely down with a connection timeout error between 7:47 a.m. ET and 8 a.m, as per AlertSite, a web performance monitoring business.

A knit scarf by the legendary Italian designer is priced from $175 to $200 on department store Web sites. The Missoni for Target collection ranges from $2.99 to $599.99. As per the store, most items are less than $40.

It seemed that Target was not prepared for the demand of the online shoppers for the items.

Marketing experts are of the opinion that the slip-up was unprofessional. At the same they are of the view that the episode would not have any long-term impact on the reputation of Target.

Twitter was filled with messages of shoppers who were unhappy to find the Web site having crashed.

The Missoni line was the latest in a series of low-price designer collections for Target.

Missoni, established in 1953 in Italy, is famous for its unique knitwear, made from a variety of fabrics in colourful patterns. Missoni knitwear is known for its multitude of patterns such as stripes, geometrics and abstract florals, in a kaleidoscope of colours.

They are also known for the liberal use of many different fabrics such as wool, cotton, linen, rayon and silk.

Missoni for Target includes everything from cardigans and ballet flats to sheets and luggage from the Italian fashion house.

With over 400 products from dresses to bath mats, the outcome of the partnership with Target is that it is the largest designer product collection till now for the discount chain.