Don't Let Network Downtime Cripple Your Holiday Profits

We are just a few weeks away from Black Friday and Cyber Monday, two of the busiest shopping days of the year. Looking forward, experts are predicting an above average holiday sales rush for 2017 — especially for e-commerce providers.

According to Deloitte, holiday sales could exceed $1 trillion between November and January. E-commerce sales are expected to increase by 18 to 21 percent YoY.

So there is reason for retail and e-commerce providers to get excited about what the next few weeks will bring — assuming, that is, that their networks are prepared.

The holiday shopping season, in other words, can bring a variety of challenges. First and foremost, Web and mobile services need to be optimized and prepared to handle rapid fluctuations in customer traffic. E-commerce providers should therefore take the next few weeks to overhaul their services and make sure they are capable of scaling.

Last year, for instance, Macy’s web site couldn’t handle the large influx of customer traffic. The site crashed in the late morning on Black Friday, and the outage lasted until the early afternoon. Target, Neiman Marcus and Best Buy have all experienced similar outages in recent years.

Heavy network traffic isn’t the only threat facing businesses this year, though. Foul weather can arise at any time, crippling business communications and bringing unprepared organizations to a standstill. And of course, there is always the threat of getting hit with a DDoS attack or malware — both of which could cause chaos for a business during the holiday season.

So heed this advice: If you want to rake in profits this holiday season, make sure your network is fortified with business continuity and cybersecurity.