David Jones sales disappoint, shares slump

David Jones, which will offer Christmas internet shopping for the first time this year as it tries to match online rivals, said it was too early to declare a bottoming-out in consumer confidence.

It's still challenging, said Chief Executive Paul Zahra. We're not seeing the volatility in trading but we have not, certainly, seen any change in consumer sentiment. It's competitive, he said

David Jones and other large retailers such as rival Myer Ltd have been scrambling to ramp up their online stores as they lose sales to offshore competitors.

However, a Click Frenzy staged event this week -- a local version of successful U.S. online shopping sale Cyber Monday -- was dubbed Click Fail by social media after the site crashed and thousands were unable to shop as planned.

David Jones ran its own online shopping promotion rather then join Click Frenzy, but its website also crashed.

The site simply went into meltdown, it could not cope with the traffic, said Zahra. It's a capacity issue that's all. It's fixable.

Zahra said the store still posted record online sales for the day.

David Jones did not provide sales or earnings forecasts. Myer said last week it was stocking its stores prudently for a worst-case scenario of flat Christmas sales, although it could quickly access more stock if sales rose as

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