“The stability of a website is critical to the success of ecommerce businesses. It goes without saying that this is especially true on a high-profile launch day. Primark’s launch day website crash comes even after it recently unveiled a new website.
“It’s difficult to know exactly what happened to Primark without being on the inside, it could have been an internal stability issue or a third-party supplier. But it does go to show that no organisation is immune from such outages and illustrates why every organisation, especially those in retail, need to take steps to minimise this risk as much as possible.
“Aside from the effects of high-profile outages, website speed also has a major impact on everything from user experience and search engine rankings to conversion rate and even revenue.
“As with any company undertaking a new procedure, this is understandably difficult for Primark, however, measures when moving to the cloud can be put into place to reduce the risk of stability and boost confidence.
“The cloud allows you to increase capacity to get around application problems – but it comes at a cost. Like pumping air into a punctured tyre, it is not a permanent fix which costs more over the long term but also saps future confidence. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to cloud infrastructure, but it’s important to view cost, capacity, and performance as one. Recognising the importance of cloud infrastructure and developing a plan of action can prevent or minimise the chance of companies such as Primark running into this error again.
