Weathering the Storm: How Retailers Can Stay Resilient as Cloud Outages Rise

In today’s digital-first marketplace, customer expectations for a superior shopping experience, both in-store and online, have reached unprecedented levels, putting pressure on retailers to offer an “always on” business model.

Impact of technical disruptions on retail

A vivid example of how vulnerable retail operations are to technical disruptions occurred recently in the UK. Greggs, the country’s largest bakery chain, experienced a major payment system outage that affected more than 2,450 stores across the country. During a busy morning, technical glitches prevented cash or card payments, forcing some stores to temporarily close or ask customers to order via a mobile app and collect from the store.

Months earlier, news broke that thousands of Walmart stores in the US were temporarily unable to process transactions because a software glitch rendered checkouts inoperable.

While the issues were quickly resolved, the incident highlights how these disruptions not only frustrate retailers but also leave them vulnerable to data breaches and customer churn. And what could sometimes be considered “minor inconveniences,” the increasing frequency of these disruptions points to much larger vulnerabilities in payment system software in the sector. That’s why retailers need to take a hard look at their resilience strategy and invest in ensuring that systems are not only failsafe, but also recover quickly in an always-on consumer environment.

As consumers increasingly demand flawless and reliable services, cloud outages have also become more frequent, seriously undermining these digital experiences. They can be caused by a variety of factors, most of which are difficult to predict: power outages, natural disasters or extreme weather events, and human error. One in four IT leaders believe infrastructure outages are the most likely source of disruption to their organization, according to a recent report.

While a complete outage may be the worst-case scenario, consumers often cite “crashes” and “slow-loading pages” (also known as service degradation) as the top disruptions to their digital experiences, often seeing them turn to competitor sites to fulfill their requests. This highlights the critical need to invest in a resilient cloud architecture and maintain rigorous best practices. This allows retailers to meet consumer expectations and maintain confidence in the highly competitive pursuit of customer satisfaction by ensuring that applications can withstand and recover quickly from the inevitable disruptions that come their way.

Practical tips for managing the “disasters of success” and meeting consumer demands

To meet the challenges of today’s digital era, retailers must have proactive and practical strategies in place to avoid “success disasters” and ensure resilience.

One key strategy is to optimize and invest in a robust cloud architecture to minimize the risk of downtime. The cost of downtime is rising, with more than two-thirds of outages costing more than $100,000, making resiliency a greater priority for retailers than ever.

Realistically, outages are not a problem we will completely solve. Cloud environments are becoming increasingly complex and interconnected. This complexity at scale will continue to increase risk, especially for retailers still in the early stages of cloud adoption. However, recognizing the inevitability of outages does not mean we cannot take significant steps to mitigate their impact. Continuous monitoring and alerting are essential to detecting and resolving issues before they escalate.

Implementing redundancy and failover systems can minimize service disruptions by ensuring smooth operations even in the face of failures. Regular maintenance and updates keep systems healthy, secure, and efficient, while training team members in readiness ensures a quick and effective response to issues (especially those involving systems that are not self-healing).

Case Study: Maintaining Customer Confidence and Business During Peak Periods

Imagine a busy shopping season where a retailer may face challenges due to numerous outages from its cloud service provider. In this scenario, a traditional database setup that switches between active and backup systems can expose security holes, potentially requiring manual fixes and leading to complications and human error.

To prepare for these potential issues, a retailer might consider moving to a more robust database. This can ensure that even if one cloud region goes down, others can take over without any disruption to service. This setup not only helps avoid downtime during critical sales periods, but also ensures that everything from order processing to inventory management runs smoothly.

This approach underscores the importance of being prepared and having the right technologies in place to handle unexpected disruptions, ensuring customers continue to have a seamless shopping experience, no matter what’s happening behind the scenes.

Building lasting trust through seamless customer experiences

In the era of digital shopping, meeting and exceeding customer expectations is not just a goal—it’s a necessity. Retailers face the daunting challenge of navigating an environment where even minor issues can lead to lost sales. But these challenges also present opportunities for retailers looking to increase their resilience and adaptability.

By proactively responding to these challenges and preparing for potential disruptions, retailers can protect their operations and maintain consumer trust. This approach not only reduces the risk of supply disruptions, but also improves the overall customer experience by ensuring that retailers can meet and exceed the high standards expected in today’s digital marketplace.

Investing in a reliable and resilient technology infrastructure allows retailers to focus more on what really matters – creating exceptional customer experiences that foster lasting brand trust and loyalty.

Rob Reid is a technical evangelist at Cockroach laboratories based in London, England. During his career, he has written back-end, front-end, and messaging software for the travel, finance, freight, sports betting, telecommunications, retail, and aviation industries.