SUPPLIER AND TECHNOFIN®

The high profile price of website failure

As more and more consumers log on to the Internet, whether to buy tickets for a concert, buy music, read the news or even couch surf for free temporary accommodation, businesses and other organisations with a web presence are continually seeing growth in traffic to their site.

The problem is that traffic spikes often take place in a matter of minutes, and the sheer volume of people trying to log on can quickly overwhelm a website, causing it to crash.

According to the Office of National Statistics, the proportion of businesses that sold over the Internet doubled between 2002 and 2005, from 7 to 15 per cent.

Analyst firm Forrester in its e-commerce 2006-2011 forecast, predicts online retail sales in Europe will more than double in the next five years to €263bn as the number of online shoppers grows to 174 million.

While a prominent online presence has become a vital sales and marketing tool for most organisations, the reality is that many do not invest sufficiently in technology to help them manage their web traffic properly.

This means that once their hard work pays off and more and more people start to use their website, they are often unprepared to meet the demand, resulting in website crashes and slow-loading pages, which risks driving potential customers elsewhere.

Some recent high profile website crashes are testament to this problem.

When the Pope Benedict XVI was elected a 19th April 2005, a rush of interest on the Ratzinger fans website (www.ratzingerfanclub.com) caused it to crash, bringing it down for over a day.

At the other end of the spectrum the Agent Provocateur website crashed when it released its first of four short films featuring Kate Moss in ‘The Dreams of Miss X’.

As more demands are made on websites, strategies must be put in place to ensure they run smoothly.

Traffic management solutions can help prioritise users who are in the process of buying, and route traffic away from busy or inactive servers to avoid crashes and ensure pages load faster.

Some recent website crashes are testament to the prevalence of this problem. In all of the examples below companies did not take the necessary precautions in anticipation of sudden traffic surges.

When their customers logged on to view a racy video, find out about the new Pope, buy tickets to a popular football game or even confirm their suspicions about the existence of ET, they all suffered embarrassing and high profile website crashes:

Couch surfers stranded http://www.couchsurfers.com

- The website that connects backpackers with people willing to let them sleep on their couches for free, and boasts over 100,000 members, became a victim of its own popularity in late June 2006.

When the website could no longer deal with the high volume of traffic it was experiencing it crashed suddenly, leaving hundreds of travellers stranded.

Paris Hilton burger ad http://www.spicybuffalo.com/carlsjr

- When the American burger chain, Carl’s Jr. ran a saucy video of Paris Hilton with one of their spicy burgers, the website was inundated with burger fans eager to watch.

Carl Jr’s obviously had not anticipated the popularity of their own product and the sudden surge in demand caused the website to crash.

Road charging crashes PMs website http://www.number10.gov.uk/output/Page11013.asp

- In February 2007 a petition was set up on the Prime Minister’s website against the government’s proposals for road charging.

The measures being debated were so unpopular that the petition’s website crashed under the strain of protestors logging on to sign it. Ticket demand crashes FA website http://www.thefa.com

- When the first game at the new Wembley stadium was announced in March 2007, a rush of supporters who wanted tickets to the historic event caused the website to crash. 5. Agent Provocateur
http://www.agentprovocateur.com/dreams_of_miss_x.php

- As part of their marketing strategy Agent Provocateur, the luxury underwear company, made four short films entitled ‘The dreams of Miss X’, which were posted on its website.

The films, featuring Kate Moss dressed in the store’s underwear, were so popular that the website could not cope with the strain. When rumours spread that Moss might even be naked in one of the short films the website crashed.

The Ratzinger fan club www.ratzingerfanclub.com– When the announcement was made on 19 April 2005 that Pope Benedict XVI was to be the next Pontiff, his fan club website saw a spike in people logging on to find out more about him.

So great was the public’s interest in the Pope that the volume of people logging on to the site caused it to crash. Aliens http://www.cnes.fr/

- In March 2007, the French national space agency made all of the French records of UFO sightings for the last 50 years public.

It set up a web site in order to make this possible, which attracted so much interest that it crashed and people were unable to log on.

Red Cross Tsunami appeal http://www.redcross.org.uk

- Following the South East Asian tsunami on 26 December 2004, there was a huge stream of generosity from public donations to help the victims of the disaster.

The Red Cross appeal was so effective that the charity’s website crashed under the number of people logging on to make donations. Glastonbury tickets http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk

- Tickets went on sale at 09:00 BST on Sunday 1st April 2007 on the official Glastonbury website via Seetickets.com.

When would-be festivalgoers tried to buy the limited tickets to the Glastonbury festival, the website was off line for a considerable period of time.

‘Most Wanted’ website http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/wanted/

- Crimestoppers, a charity organisation that operates across Britain to help identify, prevent, solve and reduce crime, launched a website listing Britain’s most wanted criminals.

However, within minutes of going live it had crashed due to amount of interest from the public. Web traffic management should be a core consideration when setting up and managing a website.

There are solutions available that can cater for small start-ups with a tight budget and minimal requirements, right through to more feature-rich products for companies with large websites and more complex requirements.

There is a common misconception that web traffic management solutions are too expensive for the smaller business on a tight budget, but the price of a basic application starts in the region of £1,000.

While some of the examples above are light-hearted, the consequences of website failure can be extremely high profile and potentially devastating. All organisations with an online presence must take note.

Customers with high expectations and money to spend will only tolerate poor performance so often before they go elsewhere.

A web-presence can be one of the most effective channels for an emerging business, but if companies don’t get it right they risk ruining not just their reputation but their very existence.

Paul Brennan, Chairman, Zeus Technology

Entry Filed under: SUPPLIER AND TECHNOFIN®, E-finance, Financial Technology, Online Banking, Online Trading