Department store Myer says it is close to reopening its online store after it crashed on Christmas Day.

Myer says it took its website down following reports that customers were having difficulty with it freezing or operating slowly.

The technical issues happened around the time end-of-year sales kicked off, but Myer says the glitches in its site were not related to the volume of traffic.

In a statement, the retailer says it has identified the cause of technical difficulties on its website and is now working to fix the problems.

The online shop has now been out of action for five days, and Myer says it may be up and running as early as tomorrow, if testing due to be finished on Tuesday is successful.

In a bid to placate frustrated consumers, the department store is planning to offer online specials and free postage when its website eventually comes back online.

"I know perfectly well that this is not good for our reputation in trying to compete online," Myer's chief executive Bernie Brookes told the Financial Review.

Australia's two major department stores have come under fire for their belated entry into online shopping, with both Myer and David Jones relaunching their websites in the last couple of years.

David Jones says online purchases in its end-of-year sale are up on last year.

Myer's main rival says it has had more than 1.5 million visitors to its site during the sale so far.

However, Myer says the website outage is unlikely to meaningfully affect its post-Christmas sales as online purchases make up less than 1 per cent of its total turnover.

Investors seem to agree that the outage will not seriously dent sales, with Myer's share price rising a further 1.3 per cent today to $2.775 by 12:50am (AEDT), after also climbing 1 cent on Friday.