There are many risks that come with running an e-commerce business. Since the website is the only place for e-commerce businesses where customers can shop and place orders, a seller would never want their website to ever crash, especially when their customers are ready to make a purchase. In the same way as people would feel disappointed to find that the physical store they walked into was not open, they would simply move on to another option rather than wait. 

An industry study found that the cost of one minute of e-commerce downtime could be as high as $5,600 (source :Nispaara Solutions). For sellers who operate on limited budgets, every transaction counts. 

In the blog given below, we have covered everything you need to know about the downtime in e-commerce, its causes, impact on the business and proven strategies to prevent it. 

What is E-commerce Downtime? 

E-commerce downtime is when customers are unable to browse the website because of the partial or permanent shutdown of the website. It happens when a website undergoes technical, operational, and human errors. It can be planned and unplanned both, sometimes the server may crash, hosting failure, and due to heavy traffic, the system is unable to accommodate all the requests at once.  

Difference Between Planned and Unplanned Downtime 

Planned Downtime 

Planned downtime is deliberate and occurs when: 

• Software upgrades are needed 

• Patching is necessary 

• Migration needs to take place 

• Optimization of databases is required 

Planned downtime is always done during off-peak times. 

Unplanned Downtime 

Unplanned downtime is caused by: 

• Server failure: Crashing of the hard drive or power outages could also cause downtime issues within the websites through e-commerce. 

• Coding mistakes: Individuals involved in managing the website may accidentally make coding mistakes. In such cases, the coding mistakes are made during system upgrades in circumstances where one self-hosts their e-commerce website without a reliable hosting platform. 

• Hackers: Another issue that may cause downtime issues is cyber-attacks like DDoS attack or malware infections. Through this process, the targeted website can be affected because botnets create a high volume of traffic. Botnets refer to a group of interconnected computers. Through the use of DDoS threats, the targeted e-commerce site may experience high traffic causing consumption of bandwidth. 

• Hosting errors: Software-related factors such as bugs in the website’s codes, faulty updates in the hosting platform can cause downtime issues. Additionally, the website may experience downtime due to software-related factors involving 3rd-party service applications or plugins. 

• Traffic peaks: At times, the amount of traffic created by the organic visitors to the website may overload the site, thus causing downtime issues. This problem occurs particularly during holidays or when the website is running campaigns featuring limited time offers. 

Examples of Downtime Scenarios in Online Stores 

• Clients who cannot check out when there is an ongoing sale celebration 

• Website crashes caused by heavy traffic 

• The payment gateway fails to work 

• Product pages are unable to load 

• Malware attack on the website 

Why E-commerce Downtime is a Serious Business Risk? 

E-commerce downtime does not only mean a temporary closure or shutdown of a website. But its impacts are much harsh and costly. An e-commerce downtime means no purchases, no sales, no revenues, and no customer trust. Hence, it disrupts the business growth and harms the customer-business relationship.  

Loss of Sales and Conversions 

When the website is inaccessible, the potential customers who are willing to buy from the online store may not be able to access it, which results in loss of revenue as the customer may not wait for the website to be active again, rather they might switch the store and shop from another store.  

Customer Dissatisfaction and Cart Abandonment 

Customers today are quite impatient and result-oriented; they will not wait if there is any issue with the website and will immediately shift to another website to make purchases. This erodes customer trust and leads them to abandon the website if such issues recur.  

Damage to Brand Reputation 

When a website frequently malfunctions and goes out of order, customers connected with the brand have to face difficulties in shopping. This leads the customers to lose their trust in the brand in the long run.  

SEO and Ranking Impact 

Fast and stable performance of the website is a factor that contributes to SEO efficiency and ranking impact. Unsatisfied customers often leave negative remarks that also impact the ranking of the website. 

Operational Disruptions  

Downtime impacts the backend systems such as: Order processing system, Inventory management, Customer support system, and Shipment tracking system. 

Common Causes of E-commerce Downtime 

E-commerce downtime can occur due to various reasons which includes human errors, cyber security threats, technical issues and so on. 

Human Errors 

Another common cause for downtime on e-commerce websites is human error. A simple mistake committed by a developer, admin, or even an employee will cause problems to occur in the normal running of the site. 

Coding Errors: Coding errors result from mistakes made during coding. The problem could emanate from just one line of erroneous code that makes key processes such as checkout or payment processing, stop working. 

Inaccurate Configurations/Updates: Any form of inaccurate configuration or update on a site leads to a myriad of technical problems. 

Cyber Security Threats 

Cyber security attacks have been a cause for concern for e-commerce companies as they have a lot of sensitive information regarding customers and payments. 

DDoS Attack: The Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is one in which an attacker floods the website with a huge amount of false traffic that makes the server busy with requests. 

Malware and Ransomware: Malware is malicious software that is created with the purpose of causing harm or disruption. Ransomware is malicious software that blocks systems till the time ransom is paid. 

Technical Issues 

Technical issues arise when there is any kind of malfunction in the systems’ components or infrastructure. 

Server Downtime: Servers are employed to keep information from websites and deliver it to the users. If the servers experience an overload or any physical problems, it might lead to malfunctioning of the website.  

Bad Hosting Service: A good hosting service is crucial to ensuring that a website works well. In case the hosting service does not provide good services, it could lead to downtime. 

Plugin Problems: E-commerce sites usually employ different types of plugins and other third-party applications that include payment gateways and SEO tools. 

Surprising Traffic Increases 

Surges in the number of website visitors could overwhelm unprepared systems. 

Promotional Activities and Special Offers 

Activities like Black Friday sales, festive promotions such as Diwali, Dussehra, and Eid, and new year discounts can cause unexpected spike in the traffic of your online store, causing a situation of e-commerce downtime.  

Viral campaign: Sometimes web traffic of your e-commerce website increases sharply due to various reasons like: 

• Going viral on social media platforms 

• Being recommended by influencers 

• Going viral via advertisements 

• Celebrity recommendations 

Planned Maintenance 

Planned maintenance is done to enhance the efficiency of a website. While it may be necessary, planned maintenance can disrupt the website’s availability for that period. 

System Upgrades: Companies constantly upgrade their systems to do the following: 

• Increase performance 

• Provide new features 

• Make websites better 

When carrying out system upgrades, certain parts of the website might be out of service temporarily. 

Security Patching: Security patches are software updates designed to improve website security. These patches do the following : 

• Protect against hacking 

• Keep data secure 

• Increase security 

The installation of security patches can cause website downtime at times. 

Key takeaways 

• Human error is one of the leading causes of downtime. Inappropriate coding, misconfiguration, and inappropriate updates may interfere with website operation. 

• Cyber security threats have adverse effects on online stores. DDoS attacks, malware, and ransomware are some examples of threats that may overload the servers. 

• Technical problems influence the performance of websites. Crashes, poor hosting, and incompatible plug-ins can result in slow performance or even downtime. 

• Traffic spikes may have an adverse effect on websites. Seasonal promotions, flash promotions, and viral promotions may create traffic overload. 

Conclusion 

The reasons for e-commerce downtime could be due to factors such as a crash in technology, traffic overload or even scheduled maintenance work, and sometimes this can happen by mistake or due to a hacker and sometimes can be due to human error. Learning about the cause will help e-commerce businesses in strengthening their system and increasing website efficiency. 

With a secure system, good hosting, monitoring, and maintenance, e-commerce companies can avoid downtime altogether. 

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