INetU Offers Tips for Surviving the Online Holiday Shopping Rush

With the holidays just around the corner, MSPs are inevitably gearing up for an uptick in traffic as customers flock to their favorite sites for end-of-the-year deals. An increase in traffic means more strain on cloud environments, which could spell doom for companies who haven’t fortified their e-commerce platforms for the oncoming rush.

INetU, which ranked #14 on MSPmentor’s MSP501 list, recently wrote about several easy ways for companies to ensure their e-commerce cloud environments are capable of handling extra holiday traffic. Here are some of the Allentown, Pennsylvania-based cloud-hosting company’s top tips to keep your site running at peak efficiency through Cyber Monday and beyond.

1. Make a business continuity plan and stick to it: Everyone knows that having your site crash in the middle of the holiday buying season is one of retailers’ biggest fears. While its impossible to completely eliminate any possibility of downtime, MSPs should implement a business continuity plan so they can prepare for the worst and get their sites up and running in the least amount of time, according to iNetU.
2. Strong Site Performance = Strong Sales: Established customers typically expect their favorite websites to operate in a certain fashion, so MSPs should go to extra lengths to help shoppers fulfill their orders in a quick and easy fashion. Remember – the faster your customers can peruse your website, the faster they can add items to their cart and check out.
3. Testing, Testing and More Testing: Are you unsure if your site can handle sudden spikes in traffic? Conduct frequent load tests to check for hidden performance issues and identify potential problems before they crop up. Perform these load tests on a regular basis so no problems slip by unnoticed.
4. Scaling Your Site is Key: You may be expecting big spikes in traffic for the holidays, so do the smart thing and be sure your site can handle the temporary increase in visitors. There are plenty of different ways to scale your cloud deployment model, including the use of pay-per-use public clouds or with a hybrid cloud solution, according to iNetU.
5. Do You Have a Mobile Version? Your site might look and work great on a typical web browser, but have you considered the number of visitors visiting from a mobile browser? With more consumers using mobile devices to shop than ever before, it is critical that your site works just as smoothly on a small screen as it does for desktop and laptop users. And don’t forget to check out dedicated mobile apps too.
6. Compliance is Critical: With all the security issues plaguing consumers in the last several years, ensuring that your site upholds PCI DSS compliance standards is critical for winning over holiday shoppers and keeping their personal information safe from hackers and bad actors.
7. Never Rest on Your Laurels: So you’ve followed all the above steps and your site is running smoothly—what next? As always, vigilance is key, so don’t stop to pat yourself on the back for too long after tweaking your site. This includes around-the-clock monitoring and hiring employees to keep tabs on your site, even on weekends and holidays. Keep up the good work, and you’ll be raking in holiday profits by the boatload.