Imagine this: A leading retail website goes down during Black Friday.

Chaos ensued as the website was inaccessible, leading the customers to flee.

As a result, the retail giant faces a devastating blow to sales and risks tarnishing its brand for good.

But why did this website go down?

When we say enterprise commerce business, they do multiple things under one roof- from order fulfilment to security and scalability to payment processing and delivery.

So, there are a lot of scopes for outages to affect revenue, customer trust, experience, and performance.

As the companies struggle to keep pace with the traffic and growing demands in peak periods, going down even for a second is exponentially expensive.

For instance, every minute, Amazon.com, Walmart, and Costco lose $220,318, $40,771.20, and $11,614.20, respectively, due to outages.

Therefore, during the holiday season especially, there’s a demand for SRE teams working in eCommerce.

So, how will the SRE team handle such unplanned downtimes in the eCommerce bustle?

Enters Microsoft Power Platform, a trusted ally for managing downtime.

Microsoft Power Platform has a comprehensive set of tools to prevent unplanned downtime. It has-

1. Power Automate to automate repetitive tasks and workflows. Consequently, it reduces the risk of human errors and increases efficiency. As a result, it enables proactive monitoring and alerting. It does it by setting up automated notifications and alerts for critical events

For instance, you can set up a Power Automate workflow that alerts the operations team when the website’s transaction volume exceeds a pre-defined threshold to ensure uninterrupted online shopping.

2. Power Apps to quickly build custom applications tailored to your specific business needs. With this, you can create intuitive and user-friendly interfaces for monitoring dashboards, incident management, and reporting.

For example, create a custom Power App with a user-friendly interface to-

• Monitor real-time inventory levels
• Track sales performance
• Receive alerts for low-stock items.

This app will allow them to enable prompt replenishment and prevent out-of-stock situations.

3. Power BI for data visualization capabilities by gaining insights from system monitoring data. By creating interactive dashboards and reports, you can easily-

• Track key performance indicators.
• Identify trends.
• Make data-driven decisions to improve system reliability.

For example, you can create a Power BI dashboard that consolidates data from-

• Online sales
• Customer feedback
• Social media sentiment analysis

This consolidation will allow e-commerce businesses to-

• Visualize sales trends
• Identify popular products
• Promptly address customer concerns for improved customer satisfaction and business growth.

4. Power Agents are intelligent bots. Power Agents enact as virtual customer service representatives, providing automated customer support and addressing their queries or concerns during downtime.

For example, suppose a customer visits an eCommerce website during such situations. They will encounter an error or may have a question. A Power Agent can engage with them through a chat interface. The Power Agent can provide-

• Pre-defined responses
• Offer alternative options
• Guide customers to relevant information or self-help resources.

This engagement ensures that customers receive some assistance even when the live support channels are temporarily unavailable.

5. Power Pages are external-facing web pages created to provide customers with relevant information, updates, or alternative options during system downtime. You can build a resilient solution within the Power Apps portal.

For instance, your eCommerce business is undergoing planned maintenance or facing an unexpected system hiccup. But fret not! With Power Pages, you can create a personalized message for your customers, keeping them informed every step of the way.

Let them know what’s happening, offer updates on the progress, and estimate the downtime duration. Plus, provide alternative ways for customers to shop, like phone orders or partner websites. It’s all about keeping the purchasing journey seamless, even when things go awry.

Microsoft Azure solutions meet Microsoft Power Platform services to enhance the performance and reliability of your eCommerce website.

Microsoft Power Platform and Azure’s comprehensive monitoring, backup, and DevOps solutions seamlessly integrate to work hand-in-hand and optimize your e-commerce success.

With Microsoft Power Platform’s low-code development, automation, and data visualization capabilities, you can create customized solutions tailored to your unique business needs.

But why stop there?

By incorporating Azure Monitor, you can monitor your infrastructure, applications, and services in real-time, leveraging proactive alerts, diagnostic insights, and performance metrics from a centralized location.

Ensure uninterrupted customer experiences with Azure Backup and Site Recovery. Protect critical customer data, back up order history and payment details, and swiftly recover from system failures or data breaches, all while maintaining customer trust and compliance. Seamlessly integrate these capabilities into your Power Apps and Power Automate workflows, delivering a seamless and secure shopping journey.

And for software development, Azure DevOps takes collaboration, efficiency, and system reliability to the next level. You can seamlessly streamline your software development lifecycle, automate testing processes, and deploy new features and updates. Combine the agility and speed of Azure DevOps with the intuitive interface of Power Apps and watch your e-commerce platform thrive.

Microsoft Power Platform and Azure’s Monitoring, Backup, and DevOps solutions are the dynamic duos you need to optimize your e-commerce success.

A case study of how we helped a leading eCommerce giant to deal with unwanted outages

When a popular online retailer faced sudden outages, they consulted us for help.

We used the incredible Power Automate to set up monitoring systems that monitored their website’s performance 24/7. If the performance deviated from the threshold, they were immediately alerted through real-time notifications, helping them with a quick fix.

But that’s not all!

We also created a custom monitoring app with Power Apps, giving them real-time insights into their system health and performance, even during unplanned downtime.

With Power BI, they visualized and analyzed the monitoring data, pinpointing the causes of system downtime and making informed decisions to prevent future disruptions.

We also implemented Azure Backup and Site Recovery, ensuring quick website restore to minimize the impact on their customers.

Thanks to our proactive approach and the power of Microsoft Power Platform and Azure, this e-commerce giant overcame their system downtime efficiently, thus maintaining a seamless shopping experience and becoming a leader in the industry.

To summarize,

Unplanned system downtime can be a nightmare for eCommerce businesses, jeopardizing sales, customer satisfaction, and brand reputation.

Thanks to our SRE team with expertise in Microsoft Power Platform, organizations can effectively navigate these challenges.

So, if you don’t want unplanned system downtime to hamper your business, partner with a leading SRE service provider today to ensure reliability and performance.

You can connect with us if you feel that WaferWire can embark on the journey to your success and thrive in the digital landscape.

You can email us at [email protected] or call us at (+1) 206 792 9930.

The ball is in your court!