Click Frenzy has retailers hoping for a spending boom, but beware the pitfalls

Marketing juggernaut Click Frenzy has promised its disappointing launch last year will not be repeated, but what can retailers expect this year?

Click Frenzy boasts its 24-hour sale last year gained two million queries in the first minute, and while that tidal wave of interest led to a meltdown, the whole experience meant a “total sales uplift of 250%” across more than 300 participating retailers.

The Iconic’s co-founder, Adam Jacobs, told SmartCompany his site was prepared for the expected pounding and didn’t go down. He said the business tripled sales compared to a normal trading day and was expecting the same this year.

“We’ve got really strong expectations. It’s a great event and it draws a lot of attention to the convenience of online shopping,” he said.

It was not so smooth for some retailers like Adore Beauty, which will participate again, which last year told SmartCompany they were disappointed with the results of Click Frenzy 2012.

“We’d paid all this advertising money, it was supposed to be this showcase of online retailing, showing off what we could do, and it was just a mess,” said Adore chief executive Kate Morris.

The Iconic resells Adidas clothing, which has joined Click Frenzy this year. Jacobs says he is not worried.

“Look, I think the more the merrier,” he says. “Whether they’re buying Adidas from us or buying directly from Adidas, that’s fine. Either way if they get a good experience shopping online they’re going to do it more often with both of us.”

Other brands new to the buying spree this year are bricks-and-mortar icons Big W, Peter Alexander and The Good Guys.

International stationery chain Smiggle, part of the Just Group, has also joined Click Frenzy this year.

As the founder of a site that withstood the frenzy last year, Jacobs has some advice for retailers new to Click Frenzy. 

“Be prepared, plan for the worst. We spent several weeks before Click Frenzy expecting the huge traffic uplift, which is what we saw … So our IT team were very focused on building and strengthening our infrastructure and looking for any potential points of failure,” he says.

Click Frenzy begins at 7pm on November 19 and runs for 24 hours.