Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2021 loom large in the minds of retailers and consumers alike. For consumers, these two unofficial “holidays” for those who are keen to part with their money, signal the kick-off of the end-of-year shopping season.
For many shoppers, the period tantalizes with the promise of scoring big deals on wish list gifts. For retailers, the two days serve as key markers for whether their business will be profitable this year. It also provides an opportunity to off-load stock that has not been selling well under auspice of the ‘sale’.
While the popularity of online shopping has been growing exponentially over the past decade, this year, like last year, Cyber Monday has taken on an increasingly big role for retailers.
This is especially so in the face of the continuing global pandemic and the fear that 2021 Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales may present them with another disappointing year for capital (as alluded to in The Washington Post).
Consequently, there is little room for mistakes. For retailers, this means avoiding anything to disrupt on-premises and/or online systems. The thing to avoid is with driving customers to the nearest competitor.
Weighing in on the topic for Digital Journal, is Don Boxley, CEO and Co-Founder of DH2i.
Boxley says that retailers need to make sure their computer systems are functioning well, stating: “Data and systems uptime, availability and security will play crucial roles in determining the success or failure of Black Friday and Cyber Monday for retailers in 2021.”
He adds that this is now part of the spending reality: “This is because consumers are savvier than ever and know that should your onsite or online systems go down, your nearest competitor is only a few steps or clicks away. And unfortunately, this exodus may be permanent. Especially if the security of customer data, or PII, was compromised.”
As to how this can be achieved, Boxley recommends: “On Black Friday, Cyber Monday and all year long, retailers must deploy smart availability solutions that offer far more capability than just combatting unplanned outages.”
As to what makes for the best system, Boxley puts forward: “The ideal high availability solution must deliver an all-inclusive approach for optimization of the retailer’s entire environment. It must ensure both planned and unplanned downtime is kept to near zero, while improving (not complicating as some solutions do) the management experience and lowering overall high availability expense.”
Likewise, Boxley adds: “Retailers must free themselves from outdated and highly vulnerable security solutions — like VPNS, and instead employ a modern data security approach — like a software defined perimeter (SDP).”
As to what this entails, Boxley elucidates: “SDP provides users with application-level segmentation versus access to the entire network. In doing so, the overall potential attack surface is minimized, a Zero Trust implementation can be achieved, and the greatest possible level of data security can be ensured.”
