With U.S. online holiday spending already over $187B, minutes now cost millions.
This isn’t about retail.
It’s about leadership.
When systems fail, customers judge the brand.
When pressure rises, teams judge the leader.
When Digital Fails, Leadership Is the Real Infrastructure.
In the final and most financially critical week of the US holiday shopping season, Target faced a major system outage that disrupted its app and website—an unexpected blow at the peak of online consumer demand.
According to Business Insider, the outage affected Target’s ability to fulfill and track online orders, while also causing failures in processing some gift cards—a high-velocity category in December. Real-time data from Downdetectorshowed a sharp spike in issue reports throughout Friday morning.
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A Target spokesperson confirmed:
“We’re aware of intermittent issues with our digital experience and a fix is underway,”
The company emphasized that physical stores remain fully operational, but acknowledged customer frustration—especially as many shoppers are now in the final stretch of pre-Christmas purchasing.
In the holiday economy, every minute is market share.
At 10:16 a.m. ET, Target’s customer service account on X advised shoppers to retry transactions after one to two hours, signaling that the disruption was both widespread and still evolving.
“We’re sorry for the frustration this has caused and understand how important it is to be able to view the order that you were charged for. Our team is aware of the website issue and is working quickly to resolve it,”
@AskTarget posted.
THE PRESSURE OF THE 2024 HOLIDAY ECONOMY
The timing could not be worse.
The 2024 holiday season is setting new digital benchmarks:
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$187B+ already spent online this season (Adobe Analytics)
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A 6.1% year-over-year increase
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Projected to reach $253B in e-commerce spending by month’s end
Retailers are now operating in a climate where even a short outage can translate into millions in lost sales, damaged trust, and weakened loyalty loops.
Outages are no longer IT events—they are leadership events.
Target’s challenge underscores a broader truth: as retail becomes more digitally dependent, system resilience has become a frontline competitive advantage.
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From The Max Energy: A Better Energy Minute — 30-Second Leadership Task
Ask your team this today:
“If our most critical system failed in the highest-pressure week of the year, what is the exact three-step protocol we would execute in the next 10 minutes?”
Clarity under pressure is not a plan—it is a competitive advantage.
