Boots experienced significant technical difficulties yesterday as shoppers overwhelmed its website during what the retailer has dubbed its "biggest ever" Black Friday sale.

The health and beauty retailer's website and app repeatedly crashed on Tuesday morning, forcing many customers into a virtual queue system. Shoppers reported being locked out of both platforms, with some receiving messages explaining the site was "rather busy with Black Friday shoppers."

The technical issues coincided with the company's popular "£10 Tuesday" promotion, leading to extended difficulties for some customers. One shopper reported at 1:50pm that they had been "trying to use the company's website for hours now and still no joy."

Customer service representatives acknowledged the problems on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, stating: "We are currently experiencing some issues with the system and we are looking into it. In the meantime please keep refreshing or call us so an adviser can place the order for you."

A Boots spokesperson addressed the situation, saying: "To manage demand, a temporary queuing system was put in place for a short period of time. The site quickly returned to normal."

The disruption comes as Boots promotes more than 22,000 deals throughout November, leading up to the official Black Friday event on 29 November. The shopping event, which was introduced to the UK by Amazon in 2010, has become a major fixture in British retail.

Despite the technical setbacks, Boots has shown strong online performance recently. According to parent company Walgreens Boots Alliance's October results, Boots.com's sales grew by 19 per cent compared to the previous quarter, accounting for 15 per cent of the division's total sales. Overall, Boots UK's sales increased by 2.3 per cent.

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