On early Sunday morning, the rush for shift dresses and floral hammocks in the Lilly Pulitzer for Target collection turned into a whirlwind, nearly crashing the Minneapolis-based retailer's website. In many stores, the collection went out of stock within minutes.

There were some customers who even after staying up all night to buy pieces online, came back empty-handed. They immediately took to Twitter and called the situation an 'epic fail' for Target.

But at the same time, others said that it was proof of the intense interest Target can still generate through limited-time designer partnerships.

Target, for its part made an apology to customers who were not able to access the collection online before most of the items had sold out.

Joshua Thomas, a Target spokesman, "We never want our guests to be disappointed. We share their disappointment with the experience of shopping online. It doesn't match what we aim to provide them, which is an easy, seamless, consistent experience".

Target frequently teams with up-and-coming designers, and Lilly Pulitzer is one of the more iconic, mature brands that it has partnered with.

The brand inspired by the preppy Palm Beach has a devoted following, mainly on the East Coast and in the South, that gravitates to its vibrant -colors and floral patterns.

In the weeks before Sunday's launch, the collection received a huge amount of buzz on the social media, but no one knew that it would be so big until Sunday.

Many annoyed shoppers said that Target's website crashed, but as per Thomas, that was not the case. He said it was due to the overwhelming online traffic that the retailer took the steps to manage the situation, slowing the site down.

Target, at many times, only allowed some customers to access parts of its website. There was a point when Target made the site inaccessible for around 15 minutes to grapple with the traffic and avoid a full-blown crash.