E-Retailers Need to Prepare For Holiday Spikes

Web traffic during Amazon Prime Day, in which 250 e-commerce merchants participated, reflected a significant uptick in the US, according to Akamai.

The fifth annual event spanned 48 hours this year, resulting in a 14% spike in web traffic. “This increase in participation and strong revenue figures mean that traffic was up as shoppers researched and purchased items. We tabulated and analyzed aggregate statistics from global online retail traffic that touched nearly 100 retail websites and mobile retail apps, providing Akamai with more than 5 billion daily data points. For our baseline, we used the month of June 2018 and did not adjust for the fact that 2018 Prime Day was 36 hours vs. 48 hours for Prime Day 2019,” according to a July 25 blog post.

Interestingly, the surge in US traffic resulted in a decline in global traffic, “with the exception of LATAM, where baseline traffic increased nearly three times as much as the US,” according to the research. 

Consumers are increasingly using mobile for online shopping, which was reflected in the research as well. “Looking at just Prime Day 1, the year-over-year change shows a healthy increase (12.94%) for mobile, with a decrease for desktop and a very large drop (-21.42%) for tablets,” the report said.

The report warned that retailers need to be aware of these spikes in traffic in order to prepare for future online sales and the holiday season, according to Akamai’s Chris Wraight. “Also, the growing number of shoppers who use their mobile device to research means that it is vital to present images and videos quickly, regardless of device, browser or connection speed,” wrote Wraight.

With a spike in tra ..

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