With Black Friday just a few days away countless Americans are prepping themselves for the midnight dash to local malls and big box stores to get the hottest deals for the holiday season. This phenomenon has evolved over the years and what was once a handful of stores opening their doors a few hours early for eager shoppers has become a marketing blitz that begins before most people have had time to digest their turkey dinner. Because several retail businesses rely on Black Friday to capture valuable sales they spare no expense to bring shoppers in as they promote special deals during certain hours, bring in extra staff to keep customers happy and even boost their security to handle the crowds.
As the evolution of Black Friday has continued to develop it has spawned a second day of “holiday madness” as Cyber Monday has quickly become one of the most important dates on any retailers calendar. Falling on the first Monday following Thanksgiving, Cyber Monday is now the busiest shopping day on the Internet, offering retailers yet another day to boost sales while attracting new customers.
These two shopping dates are no joke as shoppers prepare for Black Friday with a number of exercises that include special attention to their food and water intake, mapping out their driving routes (with alternative routes in case of traffic), and building teams of shoppers that can be dispatched to particular stores to make purchases for the rest of the group members. Its serious business for these shoppers and preparation is never overlooked. Because of this dedication shown by shoppers it is imperative that businesses match that level of preparation to handle expectations and really capitalize on their opportunities.
A retailer’s dedication to preparation is never more apparent than on Cyber Monday as many will find that their websites are receiving hundreds if not thousands of times the traffic they would get on a typical day. What this means is they need to have their computer network system in the best shape possible to handle the rush. Something as simple as a page not loading or a payment screen not displaying properly can cost untold dollars in lost sales and leave shoppers with a negative image of the company.
Just as a retailer ensures that their merchandise is on the floor and their cash registers are operable before opening the door the same must be done for their online business. Cyber Monday is about convenience and any hitch in a business’s delivery can be the difference between record sales and new customers or below average sales and lost customers.
What convenience often equates to is speed and businesses have to be capable of serving up pages at an alarming rate on Cyber Monday. As shoppers sift through the deals at a startling pace a company’s website is put under a significant amount of stress and it is their responsibility to make sure their site is capable of handling that stress.
To make sure this is the case special attention has to be paid to a company’s computer network system, making sure it’s health hasn’t been compromised and is capable of facilitating the demands coming in just a few short days.
Because shoppers want speed and reliability this has to be the primary focus of every online retailer. That speed and reliability is often challenged by a common antagonist, the computer disease known as fragmentation. Attacking the files of a computer network system, fragmentation can quickly turn an efficient website into a collective mess that shoppers will abandon and never revisit. This would obviously spell disaster for a business and so protecting their computer network system from fragmentation should be at the top of their list.
Fragmentation essentially breaks files into pieces, spreading them across the network which in turn causes serious delays whenever those files are recalled. As those files continue to be broken into pieces, or fragmented, the computer network system has greater difficulty finding each piece and delivering the request to the screen. For a customer that means a long wait, a wait that they aren’t willing to accept when there are countless competitors offering deals as well.
These issues can easily be remedied by a business with one simple step. By installing defragmentation software they can quickly restore their computer network system’s health and have it running at its best in no time. With defrag software from companies like Diskeeper, the health of a network can not only be restored but protected from future fragmentation attacks as well, giving you peace of mind during the shopping season as you won’t have to worry about speed or reliability issues.
Online business will account for a substantial amount of the money spent during this holiday season and for any company that has failed to capitalize on this growing trend you may want to take a look at your computer network system’s health. Make sure your merchandise is on the floor and your registers are working by installing defragmentation software today so you won’t miss the sales of tomorrow.
