Uptime.com Blog

Ecommerce Downtime: Causes, Consequences, and What to Do About It

Unlike most brick and mortar retailers, e-commerce stores are open 24/7, requiring that they be up and running properly around the clock. So when an e-commerce store experiences an outage, there can be costly ramifications for the company.

Negative Side Effects

Impaired Brand Credibility

If a potential customer happens to visit your online store while your site is experiencing downtime, your brand’s reputation will be damaged. Not only will the potential customer lose faith in the quality of your product, but he or she may also write poor reviews about your company on social media.

Loss of Sales

When your website is down, customers are unable to make purchases, causing you to lose sales. Additionally, you may lose returning customers who will no longer trust your website and decide to make their purchases elsewhere in the future.

Reduced Productivity

Employee productivity is negatively affected during an outage if the employees are not able to continue working while the website is down. Further, company resources that would otherwise be used for normal operations are instead being used to identify and repair the problem.

What Caused Your Downtime?

A website outage can manifest itself in several ways, including shopping cart failures and slow page times, and can be caused by a variety of reasons, such as coding errors and natural disasters.

Because of the unfavorable and sometimes long-lasting side effects caused by downtime, it is imperative to maximize your website’s uptime. Utilizing a website monitoring service is an effective way to stay informed of any outages your website may experience so that you can correct the problem as soon as possible. For example, Uptime.com is a service that monitors website downtime by checking the site at one-minute intervals 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. If downtime is detected, the site owner will be notified immediately via SMS, email, Twitter, or push notifications.

Michael Esposito