Forecasts indicate that Christmas sales figures will reach new heights. Sales for the month of December are estimated to exceed SEK 60 billion. E-commerce is also reaching an all-time high in the run-up to Christmas. But as the tide of visitors increases, so does the risk of operational disturbances. E-stores stand to lose SEK 100 million because of downtime.
According to the Swedish Retail Institute this year's Christmas gift of choice is an experience. This includes everything from concerts, wine-tastings, health spa visits or even a weekend package trip. Many e-commerce companies that market experiences are therefore pulling out all the stops to attract gift shoppers to their e-stores. In a press release, Stockholm Globe Arenas announced that ticket sales will rise by 20 per cent compared with the previous year. Travel agencies are joining the list of online businesses anticipating an increase in traffic.
But as the number of online visitors increases, so does the risk of operational disturbances. SiteScanner, the Nordic region's leading web monitoring company, has measured how much money commerce stands to lose due to operational disruptions on the web. In total, downtime could cost them anything up to SEK 100 million. Large sums are lost by the minute. Olle Bodelius, CEO of Site Scanner, has seen what downtime can mean in practice.
“For large travel agencies, one hour of downtime can cost hundreds and thousands of krona. What's more, if your website isn't working properly the customer simply goes to a competitor,” he says.
Many of SiteScanner's customers are preparing for the avalanche of Christmas customers by performing load tests and external monitoring, where notifications are sent whenever booking services or e-trading systems aren't working properly. This way any problems can be quickly corrected.
“With monitoring we will help businesses keep their customers and safeguard their revenue,” he says.