What to do when your ecommerce store goes down

Early yesterday evening online clothing giant ASOS went down, whilst it’s perhaps not the biggest news of the day, it’s something that seems to be concerning quite a lot of people across the online world.

ASOS is a big deal, they’re one of the largest online stores out there and leaders in the online clothing industry, but even they can have their technical issues. Whilst you might not expect it from a company so large it’s important to remember that no matter what, where’s there’s technology, there’s a chance for something to go wrong.

Your website going down for any reason is something you don’t want and you definitely don’t need, however it’s always a good idea to be prepared for something like this to happen.

Don’t panic straight away 

Your website has gone down and the first thing you’re going to want to do is panic, run around demanding answers and generally causing yourself stress. Panic can make you do crazy things, like alienating your customers, your staff and maybe the IT guys. Try and keep calm, remember that any technical problems are usually sorted out in a matter of time.

Whilst it’s understandable that you are going to feel panic in a situation like this, staying calm allows you to speak to people properly, get details and fully understand what exactly might be going on with your site.

Find out why 

Once you’re calm you need to find out why the problem has occurred, speak to your website provide, you IT team, anyone who can look into the problem and find out what is going on with your website.  Having experts look into the problem for you and possibly fix this issue quickly, means that you don’t have to go around looking for experts elsewhere, which would leave your website down for even longer.

Even if your IT help isn’t located onsite it’s important you keep in contact with them, communicate with them in order to keep up to date with the problem and your website status. If you don’t communicate properly this can delay the fixing of your website, leading to more frustration.

Take to social media 

In these situations social media is your best friend, use your social media presence to speak to your customers and tell them exactly what’s going on. Let them know of the issue and reassure them that you’re doing everything in your power to get a resolution for the problem. Your customers don’t want to be left in the dark and many will turn to social media to get answers, make sure you keep your customers happy.

Nobody should have to deal with their website going down, for whatever reason, not only is it incredibly frustrating for yourself and your customers but can lead to a lack of trust for your customers and ultimately a drop in sales.