Following Thursday's unexpected and still unexplained crash of Target.com — not to mention all the other problems the site has had since launching in August — the website's president, Steve Eastman, has "left the company to pursue other opportunities."
A Target spokesperson said she couldn't discuss details regarding his departure, but she said "it's not performance-related."
Eastman, who had been with Target since 1982 and had held a number of positions within the company, is the second top executive to leave Target as the crucial holiday shopping season approaches. Michael Francis, Target's chief marketing officer, recently left the company for J.C. Penney after a decade at Target.
After years of contracting its website to Amazon.com, Target announced in 2009 that it wanted to bring the work in-house to get full control over the design and management of its e-commerce operation.
Target.com was relaunched in August and faced its first big test on Sept. 13th, when shoppers flocked to the site for the hotly-anticipated Missoni for Target collection. The site crashed that morning and wasn't restored until 10 p.m. Shoppers and marketers criticized Target for being unprepared. Thursday's crash lasted for about six hours before operations were restored at about 1 p.m.
The StarTribune reports that Target has no timeline for hiring a replacement, but is evaluating options and has a "strong bench of talent within the organization."