Shell Gas Flash Sale Crashes Coupon Website

CHICAGO -- Consumers searching for good deals pounced upon savings website CouponTrade.com at midnight Dec. 10 in an attempt to purchase a 50-percent-off Shell gasoline gift card in a flash sale, crashing the site when the server received more than 400,000 requests in seconds.

Although the site couldn't handle the initial traffic, it resumed functioning within 90 minutes. "We were able to get our servers up as quick as possible without any additional problems, and the remainder of the night ran smoothly," said CouponTrade founder and CEO George Bousis.

A second flash sale offering 50-percent-off CVS gift cards and 20-percent-off iTunes gift cards was planned for customers who were unable to purchase the Shell gas gift card.

"Our growth has been nothing short of amazing," said Bousis. "We are at 200 percent growth month over month, and are keeping strong. Being featured on Yahoo! as the 'best deal of the day' was a major highlight to the campaign."

CouponTrade.com will continue to partner with other national brands to promote additional flash sales on gift cards, along with its free online coupons and discounted gift cards, the company stated.