November 01, 2021
Is your website ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday?
Retail and e-commerce stores all over South Africa are preparing for the rush of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. These take place on Friday, 26 and Monday, 29 November 2021, respectively. Black Friday has become known as the international day of spending, with consumers eager to snatch up good deals in-store. Similarly, Cyber Monday is aimed at e-commerce and online shopping.
Black Friday is the busiest day of the year in the retail sector. Last year, the day saw over $14-billion in online sales. This was almost 20% more than the figures for the previous year. 2020 was a record-breaking year for e-commerce, with almost 60 million consumers shopping online on Black Friday.
Experts predict that this year, sales will grow by 20% compared to 2020. It is estimated that around $17-billion will be spent on e-commerce sites around the world. Consumers waiting to upgrade gaming consoles, laptops and other devices, as well as other expensive electronic equipment will do so on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Large retailers are already preparing
Large retailers with e-commerce stores are busy launching their marketing campaigns, getting stock ready and preparing to take on the flood of excited consumers for these two days. Just a couple of years ago, Black Friday was characterised by long pre-dawn queues, followed by a stampede of doorbusters desperate to take advantage of much-anticipated special offers.
The Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent social distancing regulations and lockdowns, has accelerated e-commerce globally and changed the face of Black Friday. As a result, this year many consumers will be going online to reap the benefits of Black Friday deals, without the risk and hassle of going to malls and shops.
In 2021, large retailers need to make sure their websites can handle the resulting increase in traffic and requests that Black Friday and Cyber Monday will bring. SEACOM Business is on-hand to help companies upgrade their network, websites and digital platforms to ensure that they are in a position to meet the demand and maximize their sales potential during this key date in the commerce calendar.
Dealing with increased traffic
Sales campaigns won’t be a success if the website can’t handle the large volumes of users that these two massive days bring. This abnormal influx can potentially crash sites and entire business networks. Leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it’s advisable for large enterprises to test that their e-commerce store can handle a traffic surge and the increased network demand.
SEACOM Business is available to support and guide large retailers to boost their network performance and to monitor their e-commerce sites. Our tech team can help to determine potential issues and offer recommendations on how to get ready for large traffic surges, including how to protect your site from possible security breaches and system overloads.
Preventing security breaches
Increased traffic on sites also comes with cyber security concerns. Websites experiencing sudden increases in users are more susceptible to hacking and other digital threats. DDoS, or Distributed Denial of Services, attacks are made easier when a site is already experiencing high levels of traffic.
In a nutshell, a DDoS attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt normal traffic flow to a website by flooding the network with bots and fake users. This leads to system crashes and prevents the normal operation of the website, which will be hugely costly, both in terms of lost sales opportunity and reputation, for ecommerce retailers on days such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Blocking unwanted and malicious traffic is a must for large e-commerce stores, particularly during the Black Friday rush. In addition, it’s essential to ensure that consumer data is secured, especially with your online payment system. SEACOM Business can advise on the best security measures to take in order to ensure that e-commerce websites can cater for higher-than-normal traffic volumes.
Temporary server upgrades for Black Friday
Just as brick-and-mortar stores take on additional staff to help during busy periods, e-commerce stores should look at upgrading their servers with additional resources. Our virtual server hosting services offer a scalable and affordable solution for large online retailers looking for a temporary solution for the Black Friday weekend.
More servers are able to handle increased traffic, but e-commerce stores may not require these servers all year round. With SEACOM’s virtual server hosting, companies can enjoy the benefits of scaling up servers during the busy season and then scaling them down following these periods. Cloud-based servers allow businesses to flexibly and easily adapt to changing consumer demand at different times of the year ensuring cost and profit maximisation for their business.
Getting websites ready
It is estimated that 50% of online consumers will leave a page that takes more than a couple of seconds to load. E-commerce stores need to ensure their page loading speed is fast enough to provide a streamlined and efficient shopping experience. Potential customers can be deterred if they are left waiting for shopping cart or payment pages to load.
SEACOM Business has a number of enterprise-grade connectivity packages for large online retailers. Our team is available to help companies by ensuring that they have the right upload and download speeds necessary to handle the e-rush.
SEACOM Business can help
Dependable digital infrastructure is essential to ensure maximum uptime on Black Friday. Ensuring that websites can handle the traffic surges that are expected on the 26 November is crucial for large retailers looking to profit from the e-rush. SEACOM Business is available to support large online retailers as they get ready for the day.
We can help diagnose potential issues, as well as offer temporary or back-up solutions. Our scalable and flexible digital services allow large e-commerce stores to have the peace of mind that they can handle increased capacity during the busy season with stable and reliable digital infrastructure. For more information or to get a quote for our IT infrastructure solutions, email us at marketing@seacom.com or leave us a message.
SEACOM owns Africa’s most extensive network of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure, including subsea cables and secure internet connections. We offer a diverse range of flexible, scalable and high-quality solutions for businesses that meet world-class standards for connectivity.
SEACOM is privately owned and operated, making it agile and adaptable to the needs of the customer. This makes us the preferred ICT and internet connectivity partner for African businesses and peripheral service providers. We can guarantee high-speed, low-latency and secure internet connections to corporates and small enterprises.
For more information on our internet and voice solutions, follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter. Keep an eye on our news section for insightful articles and relevant news stories on African ICT, internet connectivity and our leading cloud and security solutions.
Need internet for your home? Our subsidiary, WonderNet, brings fast and cost-effective broadband internet to all Africans with a fibre-to-the-home offering.