As Black Friday and Cyber Monday approach, UK online retailers are taking steps to prevent their websites from crashing under the weight of an expected surge in shoppers. With last year’s Black Friday sales hitting £24.4 billion and online purchases representing a significant portion, retailers are focusing on ensuring seamless experiences for their customers.
E-commerce businesses, from high street giants to independent sellers, are all susceptible to what’s commonly referred to as the “Black Friday website crash.” This risk arises from the intense volume of online shoppers seeking deals, a scenario that has previously led to multiple retail sites collapsing under the pressure. Experts warn that such crashes can cost businesses not only in lost revenue but also in customer trust. Shoppers may hesitate to return to sites that go down during crucial periods, preferring competitors whose websites remain up and running.
Why Black Friday Websites Fail
While site crashes can stem from a range of technical issues—including database problems, software glitches, payment gateway failures, or security vulnerabilities—the primary cause is high traffic volume. During Black Friday, a sudden influx of shoppers often overwhelms a site’s servers. Even some of the UK’s largest retailers have faced server strains that could not accommodate the heightened demand, leading to slow load times or complete shutdowns.
A lesser known but equally significant risk is cyber threats. According to experts, cybercriminals are particularly active during Black Friday weekend, targeting sites with weak security and exploiting high-traffic periods to implant malicious code or steal customer information at checkout. Industry specialists recommend that all retailers bolster site security to protect both their platforms and customer data.
Three Key Steps to Prepare for Black Friday
To prevent website crashes, hosting experts recommend three primary actions for all e-commerce retailers. First, they advocate for stress testing, in which simulated traffic spikes are used to assess how well a site can handle increased activity. This testing process reveals if a site’s server CPU and memory can manage the pressure; if not, server capacity adjustments are recommended. During this period, many hosting providers can temporarily scale up a website’s resources to ensure stability.
The second measure is optimising product pages. Many sites feature high-resolution images, multiple product options, and detailed descriptions, which can all slow download times. Ensuring that these pages are optimised—compressing image sizes and reducing unnecessary elements—allows a site to load quickly and smoothly, especially under pressure.
The final recommendation involves fine-tuning website performance through in-memory site caching, database optimisation, and the use of content delivery networks (CDNs). These methods help reduce server load by handling some data requests more efficiently. Additional security measures can be put in place to fend off cyber threats.
Real-Time Monitoring and Last-Minute Adjustments
As the Black Friday period nears, experts recommend that e-commerce businesses work with hosting partners who use sophisticated real-time monitoring tools to track server performance. With these tools, any unusual activity or surge in demand can be identified early, enabling the hosting team to adjust resources as needed to prevent downtime.
While Black Friday offers significant potential for revenue, businesses are also at risk if their websites cannot manage the surge of online shoppers. With careful planning and robust preventative measures, however, retailers across the UK can be prepared to handle the year’s biggest shopping event without losing customers to preventable site failures. For more information and to find out more about ProStack’s stress testing services, website optimisation and site security options, visit https://prostack.uk/
