You’ve planned, you’ve purchased, you’ve priced, you’ve advertised. Whether you are a website or a storefront, that day can make or break you. Even if you are a storefront, people are going to the internet to find out your open times, your location, and what fantastic deals you have. Is everyone’s’ system ready for all that attention?
There are some colossal tragedies in the books endured by major retailers. Macy’s site was down over 6 hours one year. Neiman Marcus was down for over 30 hours. Target was only offline for 42 minutes, but it seems a lifetime. Best Buy was down for over 2 hours and even PayPal had a 504 error message for nearly 2 hours while hundreds of thousands of shoppers tried to complete their purchases.
Everyone survived but it goes to show you that even the Big Guys have problems. But, in a time with well over 75% of TV’s are Internet connected, making sure your system software and hosting can take the traffic heat becomes vital. Keep your web guy(s) and gal(s) on alert for those couple of frenetic days. Send them coffee hourly.
