The post Xmas period is typically a busy period for online retailers with peak trading around the Boxing Day and New Year’s Day sales. In our experience up to 1% of the annual online sales revenue can be seen on Boxing Day.
Selfridges and Currys websites went down for periods
The Selfridges and Currys websites were down during peak periods. Based on our experiences with other retailers, Capacitas estimates that these periods resulted in lost revenue of up to £100,000 and £700,000 respectively.
On Boxing Day, Page Load Times breached the 2 second rule at Argos, Debenhams and Selfridges
In our experience with retailers, Boxing Day is typically the peak trading day after Xmas. Our monitoring highlighted periods where Argos, Debenhams and Selfridges experienced long delays in loading website pages.
The issues Argos experienced over Black Friday are well documented in the Black Friday Wrap-Up article.
During the peak trading period between 10:00-11:00, Selfridges page load times were 9.9s, over 17-times slower than Amazon. This suggests that Selfridges were struggling to accommodate peak demand during this period. There is a high probability that shoppers will switch to rival web sites.
Shoppers at Selfridges, Tesco and Next have a much more variable user experience when compared to Amazon
Shoppers expect a smooth and consistent online experience when using an online store. The page load times should not vary dramatically. However Selfridges, Tesco and Next have page load times that are 9-times more variable than Amazon.
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