Turning Retail Sale Chaos into Year-Round Success
The holiday season is the ultimate test for retailers. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and post-Christmas sales can make or break your bottom line. Behind the scenes, technical teams scramble to ensure everything runs smoothly, yet all too often, slowdowns, crashes, and downtime derail even the most ambitious sales goals.
This past holiday season was no exception. Many retailers grappled with legacy systems straining under heavy loads, complex digital infrastructures, and incomplete visibility into application performance.
Sluggish website performance, outages at critical moments, logistical nightmares, and a compromised customer experience during peak demand led to frustrated customers, lost revenue, and costly reputational damage. In fact, according to a report by Gartner, the average cost of IT downtime is approximately $5,600 per minute.
The good news? Retail Customer Experience challenges are solvable.
In our latest whitepaper, “Navigating the Future of Australian Retail with Observability: Strategic Priorities and Technological Imperatives,“ we explore how retailers can not only survive the seasonal rush but thrive year-round. By aligning key retail priorities—resilience, customer experience, cybersecurity, sustainability, and operational efficiency—with the power of Observability, AI, and automation we demonstrate how Observability can:
- Optimise performance during peak periods
- Detect and fix issues before customers notice
- Enhance customer satisfaction and retention
- Achieve operational efficiency and cost savings.
What is Observability?
Observability goes beyond traditional monitoring by offering a complete view of your systems, applications, and infrastructure in real-time. It provides the tools to not only detect issues but also understand why they happened and how to prevent them in the future. Observability helps you troubleshoot faster and focus on innovation instead of firefighting.
Retailers that adopt Observability can create a more resilient and customer-centric experience, turning technology into a key differentiator in a highly competitive market. By incorporating Observability into your retail operations, you not only solve today’s challenges but also future proof your business against disruptions, setting the stage for long-term growth and success.
For retailers, Observability means the ability to:
- Track customer interactions across channels: Gain insights into how customers engage with your brand.
- Pinpoint performance bottlenecks: Identify and resolve issues before they impact your customers, ensuring a seamless shopping experience.
- Improve system reliability: Reduce downtime and outages by detecting problems early and addressing them proactively.
- Optimise for peak periods: Prepare your systems to handle spikes in demand, such as during Black Friday or Christmas, without compromising performance.
Why Retail visibility Matters
The opportunities – the Australian market trends
Australians continue to embrace online shopping experiences both online and instore.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) sales serve as a vital gauge of your business’s ability to handle peak demand, providing a unique opportunity to gain a competitive edge. These events test your systems, operations, and customer service in real-time, revealing strengths and areas for improvement. Successfully navigating BFCM not only boosts immediate revenue but also positions your business favourably against competitors, setting the stage for long-term growth and customer loyalty.
If your IT systems struggled this season, they won’t improve without proper fixes. The reality is, these sales events are only getting bigger. In the Australian market, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have largely shifted to online events, with over 60% of shoppers expected to participate. NAB reported a 4% increase in Black Friday spending compared to last year.
This retail season continues right through to the New Year, with technology, consumer electronics, appliances, homeware, activewear, footwear, and fashion being the most sought-after categories. This surge is driven by factors such as major discounts, the rise of mobile shopping, the growing popularity of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options, and early promotional events.
Further, retail growth is set to continue. Australia’s eCommerce sector is projected to generate $35.92 USD (approx. $25.03 AUD) billion in revenue in 2024. This positive trend is expected to continue, with eCommerce in Australia forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.33% over the next four years, reaching a market volume of $49.47 USD ($33.37 AUD) billion by 2028.
Other factors, such as population growth continues to be a key factor supporting the sector, with overseas migration significantly contributing to the country’s avoidance of recession. Additionally, stage 3 tax cuts have bolstered middle-income earners, inflation is trending downwards, and electricity relief has provided consumers with a renewed sense of confidence. Despite cost-of-living pressures and mortgage stress affecting some households, a significant portion of Australians still maintain discretionary spending power.
Get ahead of your risks….
In 2024, business failures and voluntary administration have spiked to mid-pandemic levels due to the ongoing cost of living crisis in 2024, with a growing list of retailers closing their doors. At the same time, retailers are looking at ways they can create efficiency while driving costs down. Observability allows organisations to not only gain visibility but also achieve ROI.
Final Thoughts
While this season offers significant opportunities, the trend towards e-commerce and consumer preference for seamless transactions underscores the need for retailers to prioritise a smooth end-to-end customer experience. Retailers who adopt actionable insights will fair better and gain a bigger piece of the retail pie.
In today’s complex retail environment, actionable insights are crucial to:
- Strengthen supply chain resilience and reduce costs: According to the Australian Retailers Association, holiday spending drives significant year-on-year retail sales growth.
- Enhance customer retention through seamless, satisfying experiences: A positive customer experience during peak periods can lead to increased loyalty and repeat business.
- Safeguard your digital ecosystem against rising cyber threats: With the rise of online shopping, cybersecurity becomes paramount.
- Deliver on sustainability goals while optimising performance: Consumers are increasingly looking for sustainable and eco-friendly options.
Was your customer experience merry and bright in 2024? Don’t let seasonal challenges define your year. Start turning peak-season pains into opportunities for growth in 2025. Download the whitepaper.
Avocado is a premier partner to Dynatrace
Avocado is a Dynatrace Partner, Gartner’s Magic Quadrant leader in Digital Experience Monitoring. Our highly skilled Engineers leverage Dynatrace to deliver innovative, world-class solutions. By partnering with Dynatrace, we ensure our consultants have the most comprehensive and up to date Dynatrace knowledge to help you adopt best practices and maximise your ROI.
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