The Toys R Us Disaster

Day 274 / 365

Toys R Us used to be one of the biggest toy stores in the world, with over 1800 locations worldwide. Back in the 90s it too tried to shift it’s business online, like many other companies. Christmas was their most busy time, so they tried to capture more of the online audience by heavily marketing before Christmas in 1999.

But apparently, they didn’t discuss this with the guys who were actually in charge of the website, cause their website was not built for this much traffic. Within a few days, their website started crashing, and they had to put a limit on the daily users to prevent that.

They had promised delivery before Christmas for all orders placed before 10th December. They had the inventory to fulfill all the orders, but they didn’t have the workforce to actually process the orders. Even after receiving more orders than they could possibly handle, they extended the deadline for ordering till 15th December with a premium fee.

Finally on 23rd December, just 2 days before Christmas, they sent out an email apologizing to the customers as they will not be able to deliver their gifts on time. The 100$ gift certificates that they offered as compensation were of no use and their reputation took a big hit.

Many felt that the biggest issue in this disaster was the lack of communication. If only they would have communicated these issues with customers a little earlier, they would have canceled the orders and got gifts from somewhere else.

This post is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog — Ignore the naysayers