Mass outages are less frequent now than they used to be, thanks mainly to improvements in website design and the use of scalable technologies. However, retailers still need appropriate housekeeping practices to prepare for peak traffic. If testing and optimisation are not prioritised, online issues may appear and persist, slowing development and thwarting attempts by even the most tenacious buyers to splash out when Black Friday deals go live. Follow these tips to stay ahead of the curve in 2022. Pre-empt your customer’s frustration  When we talk about website problems, we don’t mean uncommon occurrences that only have a minor impact on a few transactions. The most recent thinkTRIBE research highlights the prevalence of unnoticed errors: a quarter of customers are constantly annoyed by malfunctioning “checkout” buttons, and nearly half have abandoned their baskets because of a misplaced promotion code. The critical lesson for merchants is that an expensive error may thwart even customers who successfully proceed through the whole sales funnel. This not only impacts the company’s earnings, but it may also harm the brand over time. Know your third parties Websites today are more complicated than ever. Retailers are re-platforming, integrating technologies, and expanding their online inventory to stay ahead of the game when meeting customer expectations. They’re adding new features and enhancing personalisation, which depends increasingly on third-party plug-ins. Make sure you get an accurate picture Observing the customer’s purchasing experience allows a retail website to be tested more thoroughly than any other method. However, retailers frequently conduct tests using fictitious pathways, entrance points, and links that the general public cannot access, making it difficult to reproduce the behaviour they are eager to study. Results are also skewed when customisation and personalisation are ignored during tests. Follow in your customer’s footsteps What makes thinkTRIBE’s Customer Journey Optimisation so invaluable is real-time data based on actual customer behaviour. This gives you an accurate and realistic look at your customer’s journey, including conversions and drop-off rates. More importantly, it knows your website doesn’t exist in isolation, testing all your digital channels, platforms, and personalisation. Embrace your opportunities Black Friday can still influence the retail landscape, even if it has changed from its high-street flash sale origins into a primarily online phenomenon. To take advantage of these opportunities, merchants must modify their platforms, inventory, marketing, and sales strategies. This work must incorporate efficient testing and optimisation techniques to improve the online experience, cultivate customer loyalty and make the most of retail’s biggest annual event.

The main thing we hear in B2B and B2C these days is how to use SEO to create unique content that keeps businesses relevant. While this is incredibly valuable for growing your online content, it often means many executives overlook a crucial element in the equation: the customer . Customer satisfaction is the end goal for all good businesses. Understanding your customer’s behaviour while using your website is the first step in ensuring you’re creating an error-free customer experience that doesn’t just meet their expectations, but exceeds them. Success can be self-evident. While it is easy to see what a company is doing well, spotting those bumps in the road can be more of a challenge. With nearly half of customers reporting having abandoned their baskets because of a misplaced promotion code or checkout struggle, that’s no small loss in revenue. When looking at your annual profits, imagine that figure doubled. Or worse, halved. A consumer’s interaction with your brand or company is called their “customer journey.” Successful customer journey design enables you to lower expenses, boost income, and build and maintain client loyalty. Each customer interaction, or touchpoint, plays a crucial role in the customer journey. Understanding these touchpoints enables your team to control expectations, assess successes and failures, and continue to improve customer experiences over time. With thinkTRIBE’s Customer Experience Monitoring and Customer Journey Optimisations, you can get ahead of any errors before they adversely impact your customers. By following your customer’s journey in real-time, thinkTRIBE take you behind the curtain of your website. You’ll be in your customer’s shoes, experiencing your website the same way they do, errors and all. This includes essential optimisation for third-party plugins and platforms. Because thinkTRIBE’s user journeys are dynamic, they will navigate your website exactly like a real customer would, making realistic decisions at each stage of the process, such as randomly picking a category, item, or search result. This method will provide significantly more coverage over a narrower range of user journeys and help detect more possible performance bottlenecks. Your website will likely be the main point of contact for many customers. Maintaining site integrity and optimal performance is just as crucial for your bottom line as your brand’s reputation. Ensure you meet your customer’s expectations by following their online journey and ensuring it meets the same high standards you’d expect if you were in their position.

Make sure your website migration doesn’t put you on the naughty list! Just in case you missed it or were trying to avoid it, Christmas preparations are well underway! Christmas advertising is on television, trees and other decorations are being erected on the high street, and soon, most purchases will come with a mince pie, a sprig of holly, and a coating of fake snow. It’s common for website owners and managers to decorate their homepage with the aforementioned sprig of holly in November and wish their visitors a happy holiday. This graphic update can convince customers that Christmas is approaching and persuade them to buy more things. But while a little festive sprinkling might put your customers in mind to buy, the upcoming holiday season is the time of year when your website must look as healthy behind the scenes as it does from the outside. November through to January sees one unmissable online event after another. Black Friday, Cyber Monday and New Year Sales all bracket the most lucrative sales period for any online business – Christmas online shopping. The COVID-19 restrictions of previous years might be behind us, but the Christmas online shopping market is still predicted to grow by 2.5%, prompting concerns from business owners that any necessary website migration might not be optimised to take full advantage of the busy period. You can overcome that fear with the aid of thinkTRIBE. Our completely managed Customer Experience Monitoring service designs dynamic user journeys, so instead of taking a predetermined route, our testing services will navigate your website just as a genuine customer would. Furthermore, the real-world load model created by our load testing service exposes all performance problems and bottlenecks. ThinkTRIBE flags any issues, offering your staff visibility into your migration process before errors can have a negative impact on your business. ThinkTRIBE can assist you in monitoring your website’s migration journey to better protect your brand and maximise your Christmas online shopping.

Hosting an event can be one of the most exciting and nerve racking experiences a business can do! It’s exciting to bring people together, to share an experience, but it brings with it a wealth of nerves that all circle around the question, ‘what if…’ What if no one likes the experience? What if something goes wrong on the day? What if our site goes down and people can’t buy a ticket? – As was unfortunately discovered by the teams selling the recent Peter Kay tour tickets ! The list of possible downfalls when it comes to having an event is long. But as with most things in life, the more prepared you are, the less likely you are to experience problems, and if you do, the more equipped you are to deal with them. So one place we know you can be fully prepped, is selling your event tickets online! Online booking and e-Ticketing options have gained ground in recent years, an easier and more environmentally friendly option than traditional in-person buying, selling and printing. But there are still plenty of pitfalls for the unwary seller and buyer. It’s a common occurrence that people’s feedback when buying online tickets is that they experienced a lot of glitches. Pages not loading properly, the site being extremely slow, problems adding and accessing their basket once they’ve selected their tickets. And in cases of popular date releases, your site going down completely as it’s overwhelmed by the number of users trying to access the site. When selling your event tickets online, you want your customers to have a hassle free experience. At thinkTRIBE we can help you achieve this through round-the-clock monitoring, picking up any glitches early and quickly before they cause any serious issues – even testing for third party performance issues. We can load test your site for high volumes of users, so you are ready for peak traffic, without compromising on providing a peak user experience. So if you want help reducing the nerves for your event and avoiding having the Peter Kay drama, speak to us here at thinkTRIBE, so you can make selling your event tickets online a hassle and nerve free experience.

It’s one thing to have a bad day at work. It’s something else entirely for that bad day to result in a special hearing in the US Senate. In November, Live Nation Entertainment Inc’s Ticketmaster made global headlines when a high demand for Taylor Swift’s US Tour led to a catastrophic system crash. This comes hot off the heels of demand for Peter Kay’s UK Tour sales crashing O2’s Priority website earlier in the month. While O2 isn’t facing the same level of political scrutiny Ticketmaster is in the US; both situations highlight the fact that there is more than just a company’s finances on the line when it comes to keeping up with customer demands. For O2, the crash has led to unhappy customers and the tarnishing of partner trust. For Ticketmaster, the touring giant is now in the crosshairs of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights. In both cases, pre-release sales resulted in the vast majority of tickets already being purchased before general release; however, according to company authorities, it wasn’t pre-registered fans purchasing tickets that were responsible for the catastrophe; instead, it was tens of millions of unauthorised visitors and billions of bots attempting to enter the auctions early. Neither fans, customers, partners, nor the Senate is likely to be satisfied with Ticketmaster’s explanation, which claims that it misjudged demand for presale tickets and was unprepared for the millions of fans who tried to log in. Ultimately, neither site was properly load tested to ensure their systems were robust enough to withstand the peak traffic. thinkTRIBE prioritises load testing as part of our performance strategy. While other testing procedures, including user acceptability and penetration testing, are frequently taken into account during the early planning phases, load testing is often an afterthought that can be delayed until closer to the crunch. Putting off load testing till the very last-minute limits the amount of time that can be used to correct issues and leaves no time for retesting to determine whether the patch was successful and what effect it had on performance. Not only is it more productive and cost-effective to build a long-term plan for load testing into your strategy, but proper planning also allows for extra time to cycle through different outcomes and retests, giving you peace of mind about the reliability of your platform. Nightmares like the ones Ticketmaster and O2 are currently experiencing are entirely avoidable. Take a look at our whitepaper for more advice.

Shoppers anticipate Black Friday and Boxing Day sales all year long. Many people take advantage of the bargains to finish their holiday shopping or even treat themselves to something expensive. The retail events we’ve grown to enjoy will unquestionably look different as a result of shifting economics, with bargain hunters set to turn out in greater numbers but with tighter budgets. Knowing where best to position your sales to take advantage of the increasingly oversaturated sales market can be challenging. Looking at the two powerhouse annual events, we can see clear trends for the season ahead. Black Friday & Cyber Monday According to Finder research, British shoppers will spend an average of £189.59 during this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. There is a 31% (£85) decrease since last year’s statistics when consumers spent an average of £275. With the cost of living crisis showing no signs of improvement in the New Year, this more frugal figure shows that many Britons are genuinely trying to cut back on their expenditures. UK consumers will spend £3.95 billion less on Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2022 compared to £6 billion in 2020 and £4.8 billion in 2021. Spending in the UK is anticipated to decrease by more than £850 million (18%) this Black Friday and Cyber Monday due to Brits choosing to spend significantly less. That said, despite a decline in overall spending, the percentage of Brits planning to shop during Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales has increased by 6% from the previous year, going from 33% in 2021 to 39% in 2022. This increase could be explained by people wanting to make more savings before the holidays. Black Friday has become a firm favourite for those looking to pick up bargain deals for Christmas gifts, with electronics, toys, clothes, and entertainment making up a large percentage of sales. Boxing Day As record inflation affects consumer budgets, sales are predicted to decline by £2.51 billion from Christmas 2021’s expected total of £84.7 billion, sliding below 2019’s pre-pandemic numbers of £83.1 billion. Sales are not anticipated to fall to the levels observed during Christmas 2020 when the pandemic peaked (£79.7 billion). Analysts predict a 6.8% decrease in gift spending compared to 2021 (£11.59 billion vs. £12.44 billion), with consumer electronics suffering the brunt of this loss with a forecasted £2.27 billion vs. £2.7 billion. Jewellery is down 11.1%, followed by apparel and footwear, both of which have experienced declines of 12.1%. Boxing Day sales are increasingly seen as a chance for people to spend any money they’ve received for Christmas. Alcohol and confectionary see strong sales in the period between Christmas and New Year. At the same time, shoppers are more likely to ‘treat themselves’ to luxury items they might have missed out on over the holiday period.

As we enter a new year, many businesses are gearing up for their next product launch. With the anticipation of increased traffic to their website, it’s important to ensure that everything runs smoothly and that customers have a positive experience. One key way to do this is to work with thinkTRIBE and load test your website before code lockdown. A comprehensive load test program for six months leading up to peak traffic is the optimum solution for peace of mind. However, we understand that this may not always be realistic. The important thing is to make sure that a load test is conducted before code lockdown, with enough time to implement, test and fix any issues. This way, tech teams have no last-minute pressure to deliver the impossible. Testing third-party material or calls is crucial because they are frequently a key contributor to performance concerns, a potential bottleneck and speed tax. In busy periods, this will aid in enhancing your website’s speed and user experience. It’s also important to review your infrastructure configuration and server-side optimization. This includes checking that load balancing and autoscaling are configured and implemented correctly. Additionally, ensure that caching is enabled and that pre-rendering and CDN implementation work for the appropriate content. All of this functionality can be covered by thinkTRIBE’s 24/7 Customer Experience monitoring journeys. Preparing for peak traffic during a product launch can require a combination of load testing, stripping back to essential functionality, reviewing infrastructure configuration and server-side optimisation and testing a contingency plan. By taking these steps with thinkTRIBE, you can confidently ensure that your website can handle the increased traffic and that your customers have a positive experience. Which in turn ensures your sales continue to increase inline with the increased traffic and they don’t plummet due to site failure or a negative user experience. Get in touch with us at thinkTRIBE today and make sure your site is in peak shape for peak traffic.

Web performance testing is a critical component of ensuring that your website delivers a fast and seamless user experience. It involves simulating real-world scenarios and testing the performance of your website under different loads and conditions. This type of testing helps to identify and address performance issues before they impact the user experience. Why is Web Performance Testing Important? Web performance testing is important for several reasons. First, it helps to ensure that your website can handle the expected traffic volume without crashing or slowing down. This is particularly important for e-commerce websites or other sites that experience high levels of traffic. Second, web performance testing can help to identify and fix issues that may be impacting the user experience, such as slow page load times or broken links. Finally, web performance testing can help to identify areas for improvement and optimization, which can help to boost search engine rankings and overall website performance. thinkTRIBE is a leading provider of website performance monitoring and testing services. We offer a range of services designed to help businesses identify and address performance issues, including: Load Testing : thinkTRIBE offers load testing services that simulate real-world traffic scenarios to test the performance of your website under different loads and conditions. This helps to identify performance bottlenecks and other issues that may be impacting the user experience. Customer Experience Monitoring : thinkTRIBEs synthetic monitoring services simulate realistic user interactions with your website to identify performance issues that may impact the user experience. This type of testing can help to identify issues such as delivery time, website features and broken links. thinkTRIBE Native Mobile App Monitoring (NEW):   measure the performance, availability and consistency of journeys across your native Android app as experienced by App users. Performance Optimisation: thinkTRIBE offers performance optimisation services designed to identify and address performance issues, helping to boost website performance and search engine rankings. Mobile Performance Testing : thinkTRIBE’s mobile performance testing services help to ensure that your website delivers a fast and seamless user experience on mobile devices, which are becoming increasingly important for website traffic.

Online sale seasons present a critical opportunity for companies to boost revenue and improve their bottom line. Retailers need to take action to locate and address any potential bottlenecks or errors in their website to make sure that they are ready for the rush. ThinkTRIBE offers a variety of services to help you get your website ready for peak sales periods. Performance load testing is the best place to start. Load Testing replicates and exceeds predicted website traffic, so that businesses may spot any possible problems before they have a direct impact on the customer. Sale seasons are a highly competitive market for retailers, so your website must be stress tested ahead of time to avoid losing customers because of slowness or errors. Another important service offered by ThinkTRIBE is Customer Experience Monitoring . This allows retailers to track the performance of their website in real-time, using authentic customer browsing patterns and realistic user journeys. This enables you to identify any issues that may arise during the sales period and take immediate action to resolve them. It ensures your customers have a smooth and seamless experience while using your website, which is essential for maintaining customer loyalty and brand integrity. Take a peek behind the curtain with ThinkTRIBE and get real-time dynamic insights into the strengths and weaknesses of your website. By following in your customer’s footsteps and experiencing your website the way they do, you’ll be ahead of the curve when it comes to sales, ready for the rush and set to start the year with the best possible success.

Boden, leading UK online fashion retailer, relies on ThinkTribe’s digital customer experience monitoring to ensure smooth performance and maximise sales across its websites globally. With over 90% of sales coming from online, Boden serves customers across multiple eCommerce stores in the UK, US, Australia, Germany, Austria, France, and a new Eurozone site. The Challenge A team of in-house developers build the company’s websites and key applications, enabling Boden to quickly diagnose and fix issues, which is crucial as their internet business grows. However, the continuous nature of their websites requires 24/7 monitoring to ensure seamless digital experience (DX), especially during their high-traffic end-of-season sales. The Solution Boden uses ThinkTribe to monitor digital CX on their websites 24/7 and alert the team to any issues. ThinkTribe replicates customers performing journeys across the site, identifying digital experience problems in real-time. This proactive approach allows Boden to fix issues promptly, ensuring a seamless shopping experience. Lalit Mandalia, Head of Technical Services, responsible for the smooth running of Boden’s IT infrastructure and networks, explains “We issue new software updates for the websites and associated systems every couple of weeks. When we push out a new release, we monitor ThinkTribe and our other monitoring tools very closely. ThinkTribe is our number one place to look to ensure the websites are OK.” The Benefits David and Lalit highlight ThinkTribe’s comprehensive monitoring and excellent customer service. Historical views and journey comparisons help Boden swiftly track issues and improvements and ensure their websites perform optimally. Discover the full case study here. #digitalexperience #DXmonitoring #globalecommerce