The moniker “Cyber Monday” is something of a PR creation, but Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) is looking at a PR problem today due to glitchy small business servers, which power third party e-commerce sites. CNBC (video) reported the issues this afternoon but the extent and cause of the problem aren’t yet clear. On its Merchants Solutions site, Yahoo has a brief message saying it is investigating the issue. CNBC mentions one site, SandboxCouture, a baby clothes vendor that does two-thirds of its business through Yahoo, as a site that hasn’t seen any transactions through the site since 6 a.m.. The problems aren’t necessarily linked to shopping volume, but the timing calls to mind the early days of e-commerce, when unprepared sites buckled on heavy traffic days. If nothing else, the last thing Yahoo needs is bad PR.
Update: Yahoo is now confirming that the glitch is, in fact, traffic related, according to CNBC. Reporter Jim Goldman has more on his blog TechCheck: Search engine optimization consultant Catherine Seven runs seowhat.com and says she works with 22 clients who use Yahoo Shopping: None she’s spoken to today have had any transactions processed.
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