Black Friday in e-commerce - 3 key steps to an efficient and stable infrastructure
Black Friday is one of the most exciting shopping events of the year, attracting millions of customers to e-commerce platforms. For online shops, it is a period of heavy traffic, high sales, but also a huge strain on IT infrastructure. To avoid downtime, performance issues and unwanted customer frustrations, preparing the right IT infrastructure before Black Friday is crucial.
In this article, we'll discuss the three most important steps to ensure e-commerce systems are stable and efficient during the biggest promotions of the year.
Ininfrastructure preparation and scaling
The first step to ensuring our e-commerce capacity during the Black Friday sales is to carefully prepare and scale the infrastructure.Historical data and current trends should be carefully analysed to forecast expected traffic growth. This will allow you to adjust your server and network resources accordingly. The use of cloud computing and auto-scaling services (Monogo Cloud) allows you to flexibly and dynamically increase your processing power as your traffic increases. We wrote about how to seamlessly handle an increase in website traffic by using Monogo Cloud in our case study. The implementation of load balancing mechanisms and the preparation of a high-availability architecture allow network traffic to be evenly distributed between resources, preventing overloads and potential failures.
System performance optimisation
The second important step is to optimise system performance. The key here is to ensure a fast and seamless user experience, which translates into customer satisfaction and higher conversion rates. Optimising databases by improving query performance, indexing tables and optimising data structures significantly speeds up database operations. The use of content delivery networks (CDNs) speeds up page loading by serving static resources from servers geographically closer to the user. In addition, the implementation of caching mechanisms at different levels - in the browser, on the application server or in the database - reduces the load on the system and speeds up response times.
Monitoring and rapid response
During Black Friday, it is important to monitor systems and react quickly to problems as they arise. Constant tracking of server, application and database performance allows for early detection of anomalies and potential threats. Implementing advanced monitoring tools for e-commerce platforms and setting up real-time notification systems allows the technical team to respond immediately to any anomalies. It is also important to have a contingency plan in place. The scenario includes procedures in the event of a failure, including redundancy of systems and regular data backups. This ensures that full system functionality can be quickly restored without significant loss.
Black Friday can be a great opportunity for any e-commerce business. This opportunity to increase sales and gain new customers is huge. However, to take full advantage of this potential, it is essential to ensure the stability and performance of your systems in the face of a surge in traffic. By carefully preparing and scaling their infrastructure, optimising performance, and continuously monitoring and responding quickly to any problems that may arise, companies can not only avoid costly failures, but also build positive and lasting relationships with their customers. In today's competitive e-commerce environment, this strategic approach is a significant advantage. This approach translates into customer loyalty and long-term success in the market.
If you want to check if your e-commerce is ready for Black Friday write to us. For more than a decade, we have been nurturing the development of major online platforms by providing support for effective and secure online sales.