November is finally here and we all know what that means: Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) are days away. The popularity of BFCM with consumers of all ages and backgrounds makes it the most important shopping event of the year. In fact, it’s estimated that 30% of ALL retail sales take place between Black Friday and Christmas. And while brick-and-mortar stores are seeing a revival in foot traffic post-pandemic, many customers still prefer the convenience of shopping on the web. Last year on Black Friday alone, for example, 88 million Americans spent a whopping $8.9 billion shopping online.
Syte’s clients, like all leading brands and retailers, prepare for the holiday weekend for months, anticipating traffic surges and significantly higher selling volumes compared to the rest of the year. Our mission, year-round, is to make it easier for shoppers to find what they’re looking for, and specifically during this critical season, Syte is doing everything in our power to ensure seamless online shopping experiences. Here’s what we’ve got in store to help our customers achieve their goals during BFCM 2022:
On the Back End: We’re Scaling Up to Meet the Special Demands of BFCM 2022
In advance of peak shopping events, every retailer needs to ensure that its entire eCommerce tech stack can scale to handle the increase in traffic and orders. With product discovery being one of the most important ingredients for a successful shopping experience, we at Syte are laser-focused on how we can support our customers during BFCM. Here, Ido David, Senior Director of R&D Platform Engineering, shares a few key ways our R&D team is preparing for BFCM:
- AWS task force – Syte has a designated BFCM task force with Amazon Web Services, through AWS’ Infrastructure Event Management program. Solution architects and experts from Syte and AWS have met to ensure that our architecture and infrastructure are ready for the expected surge over BFCM weekend. The task force has examined the expected surges in website traffic and verified that we have the required machine capacity to scale accordingly.
- Load testing – We are running our own load testing to make sure our infrastructure can hold more than the expected load on BFCM with the exact same high performance we always provide. Besides that, we are also cooperating with customers who wish to load test our service themselves in order for them to be confident in the performance they will receive on BFCM.
- Scale up process – We have scaled up our production resources to support the expected growth in traffic, which means we will be over provisioned with our infrastructure in order to take enough buffer for traffic bursts.
- Extra availability – Over BFCM weekend, our R&D teams will be on-call to handle any incidents and take immediate action to resolve issues, should they arise.
Special Syte Customer Support Services for BFCM 2022
BFCM is a short but intense period of time for retailers worldwide. There is no room for website friction during this global shopping event. That’s why our technical support team is ramping up our CS services to ensure that every Syte client has the support they need to make it through this busy period. Here’s what Nawaf Helou, Head of Technical Support, has planned:
- Direct phone contact – We’ve set up a special CS phone number for customers who want to discuss urgent issues during BFCM. The line will become active on November 25 and will remain live through November 28. All Syte customers will receive an email with the phone number by November 10th.
- Easy-to-use online help center – We have a special form where you can submit a request on our dedicated Help Center. All tickets will be treated with high attention.
- Syte Status Page – Our newly launched Syte Status Page provides a quick and easy way for us to communicate with customers regarding data and system performance. This page includes a link where you can subscribe with your email so that you can stay updated and tuned in.
Unique Content to Help Your Brand Stay Ahead of the Competition
Check out our BFCM Resource Center for blogs, guides, videos, and checklists covering a variety of topics to help eCommerce brands and retailers succeed this Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend. Each piece contains helpful information, tools, and tips to get ahead this holiday season.
We’re Committed to Your Success
At Syte, we’re all about connecting shoppers to products they’ll love, and at no time is that more important than over Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We’re excited to partner with our clients this holiday season and to help shoppers find their perfect gifts.