Walmart down: Shoppers face tech glitch as customers look to make Easter purchases

has apologised for "technical issues" which left shoppers across the US unable to buy anything.

The supermarket's app and website were down for a short time on Thursday, which left frustrated as they could not bag last-minute Easter buys. Customer were unable to checkout, and expressed their fury on social media.

Walmart, which has more than 10,000 stores, eventually confirmed on X, which was known as , issues had been resolved but it was some time after reports of outages started flooding . According to outage tracker DownDetector, reports spiked sharply around 2:25PM ET (7.25pm in the UK), going from a small trickle and ballooning to more than 3,600 alerts every five minutes.

Writing online, one shopper said: "Damn Walmart... is somebody sleeping on the job or what?!?! This app has been down for a while now. Get your s*** together." Another posted: "Trying to put in a mobile order and both have been unusable for hours."

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One Reddit user, who reported to be a Walmart employee, wrote: "It's company wide... They've got every IT person working on it right now." It was soon fixed with Walmart Help writing on X: "Everything should be back in working order! If you're still having issues, please reach out to us via DM."

Users from various states, including Texas, Arizona, Missouri, and New York, initially flagged issues on the main Walmart app. Reports of outages then ballooned and it hampered online shopping ahead of Easter.

It is a huge part of Walmart's business with $18 (£13) in every $100 (£75) spent at Walmart is done online — a clear sign that more shoppers are relying on its website and app to make purchases. It is a pattern reflected in the UK, and has reportedly been a factor in in a significant change at some of its stores.

Walmart tried to exploit this trend by introducing bargain basement deals on seasonal products, including children's Easter baskets. The outage came on the day before Good Friday with parents scrambling to secure last-minute Easter treats.

Despite the temporary tech glitch, Walmart is heading into the second third of 2025 with millions of dollars of wind in its sales. The company, which recently hosted two investor days, reported that its expecting solid sales this year, even if the US economy goes sour.

But Walmart's investments outside the US have seen mixed results. Its operations and subsidiaries in Canada, here in the with Central America, Chile, and are successful but its ventures failed in Germany, Japan, South Korea, Brazil and Argentina.