The company experienced technical issues that left it unable to process payments…
Target’s shares dropped 1.5% on Monday after the company experienced payment problems all weekend. According to the company, the problem was caused by technology issues, not a security breach.
Target said that none of its customer payment information was compromised during this time. Target hasn’t specified what these technical problems cost them financially, though online sales were still able to proceed as usual.
Target experiences multiple payment problems
On Saturday, the company’s cash registers stopped working for about two hours. Irritated customers posted videos of long lines and abandoned shopping carts.
Then on Sunday, Target’s payment processor had technical issues that left the company unable to accept credit cards for about an hour and a half. This issue was unrelated to the problems the company experienced on Saturday.
Father’s Day weekend certainly isn’t the ideal time for this sort of mishap, given that many customers were probably out buying gifts and other items. Some stores shut down completely while others passed out treats like Starbucks coupons and Icees.
Target hasn’t gone into detail about what caused the problem, other than that it was the result of a technical issue. However, the company was quick to assure its customers that the problem wasn’t a security issue and that customer data wasn’t compromised.
Undoubtedly, the company is sensitive to the way it responds to these types of issues after its 2013 data breach.
Target returns to business as usual
As of Monday morning, the payment issues seem to have been resolved. The company did issue a statement apologizing to customers for any inconvenience.
Even in spite of Monday’s drop, the company’s stock is up 30% in 2019. Both in-store and digital sales have been strong. And Target continues to prove it can hold its own against competitors like Amazon and Walmart.
No company wants to deal with these types of issues and a smaller retailer could have a hard time regaining a customer’s trust. But Target has proved it is a resilient company and will probably bounce back from this fairly quickly.
