Woolworths online ordering crashes

Woolworths has been forced to cancel online orders for groceries made over the past two days due to a technical issue with its online ordering platform.

The grocery giant first advised customers yesterday afternoon that their scheduled click and collect or home deliveries would need to be moved to the same time slot on Monday.

But despite "trying very hard" to fix the technical problems, it today said that all orders scheduled to arrive on both Sunday and Monday afternoon had been cancelled.

"We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused. We have tried very hard to fix the technical issues and meet the delivery time however we have been unable to do so. We can understand this is incredibly frustrating," Woolworths said on social media.

Orders scheduled for delivery on Monday morning had only experienced "minimal" impact, a spokesperson said. 

Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci said the retailer was "disappointed" and "apologise[d] unreservedly" for the ordering problems.

"Once the dust settles we will reach out to each of these customers personally and compensate them as best we can for the major inconvenience caused," he said in a statement.

Woolworths shifted its online operations onto the Microsoft Azure cloud platform late last year.

Update 11/7/17: Woolworths has provided all affected customers a $100 onlin voucher to compensate for the inconvenience.