Panopta: Retail website uptime performance improves

According to the Panopta Availability Index covering the chaotic Christmas season, retailers handled the 2012 holiday traffic far better than previous years. Most retail websites performed well with just a handful of large brands suffering significant outages.

The Victoria's Secret website suffered the most downtime with 29 outages totaling more than 16 hours. Video game rental website, Gamefly.com, suffered 11 outages totaling more than 12 hours.

Walmart.com frustrated online shoppers the day after Christmas when it suffered an outage lasting 3.5 hours.

"Many factors can cause an outage, but most are preventable," said Jason Abate, CEO and Founder of Panopta. "Downtime in a high traffic period like the holiday shopping season can be catastrophic to a company. When a site isn't available, consumers often buy elsewhere leaving the door open for a competitor and hurting the goodwill a brand has worked hard to establish with customers." http://holiday.panopta.com

Tags: downtime, holiday 2012 trends, retail, uptime, web performance, website downtime, website maintenance