A communication breakdown between a software application and internet servers had been identified as the problem, Mr Brookes said. Testing of the system was expected to be finished by Tuesday at which point Mr Brookes hoped the website would be operating again. Mr Brookes said he “unreservedly apologised” to customers and understood their frustration. The company would make it up to its online customers by rerunning Boxing Day stocktake sale offers, as well as offering a period of free delivery and extra website-only specials, he said. “We’ve got some big plans once we get it up and running,” Mr Brookes said. The offer of free delivery will bring Myer in line with online-only rivals such as The Iconic and ASOS, which generally do not charge for shipping. Myer will also run a “post mortem” investigation with technology provider IBM to ensure the software bug “never happens again,” Mr Brookes said.

Mr Brookes defended the delay in getting the technical difficulties resolved, saying it was not as simple as running an automatic clean up process on a personal computer, or turning a device off and on again. “We’ve spent a lot of time identifying, with the help of IBM, the root cause of the problem,” he said. “The testing is not the problem... it’s identifying what’s the problem that takes time.” About two dozen technology staff at Myer as well as a “critical situation team” from IBM in the United States had been working together to locate the bug. Mr Brookes praised the technology provider and said he had been in regular contact with IBM’s local and global management throughout the website’s down time. “This is not a blame game,” he said. Less than 1 per cent of Myer’s annual $2.8 billion in sales comes from its website. Mr Brookes said the outage would not impact the company’s profitability. Investors are not concerned by the online failing, with Myer shares gaining 1 per cent since Christmas Eve to trade at $2.77 at 14:49 AEDST. Even though the financial implications are negligible, the founder of consultancy Retail Doctor, Brian Walker, said there would be lasting damage to the Myer brand and image.

Loading “Myer would be well advised to come out with a public relations strategy that doesn’t talk about online only being 1 per cent of the sales,” Mr Walker said. “When they say that they’re basically saying well 99 per cent of our business is done in the stores. Some might draw the inference that those online customers aren’t as valuable.” “Any customer upset in any channel in a highly competitive marketplace is the last thing they want,” Mr Walker said.