Target's Partnership With Lilly Pulitzer Kicks Off With A Bang

On Sunday,

began offering a discounted line of Lilly Pulitzer products; creating a

for fans of the Palm Beach label's brightly colored offerings. Brick and mortar stores were swamped with lines that stretched around the building and the company's website was bombarded with shoppers in a volume that store representatives likened to Black Friday. All in all, for Target, the Lilly Pulitzer collaboration proved to be a massive success.

Due to the high volume of web traffic, Target was forced to take down its website for 20 minutes on Sunday morning and postponed its online sale to 5 a.m. Central Time from 3 a.m. Central Time due to the number of visitors. Target also restricted access to its website throughout the day in order to keep the site from crashing.

Fashionistas hoping to get their hands on the luxury designer's clothing were often disappointed as most locations were sold out within hours and in many cases, minutes. Online stocks ran dry within three hours of being made available to the public.

The Lilly Pulitzer sale was a one-time offering from Target, so the company will not be replenishing its stocks. Although this was a major disappointment to those who came up empty handed, for Target it marks a successful way to drive store traffic and generate a buzz. The one-off collaboration with a luxury designer helped Target stand out from other discount retailers as a fashion-forward brand with its finger on the pulse of fashion.