LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE - According to a study InternetVista, a company specializing in the monitoring of Internet applications, e-commerce sites in Belgium have lost nearly two and a half days of sales during the holiday season. The cause: a malfunction in their server. The result: sites inaccessible to Internet users and lost revenue fatal.
Between 1 December 2008 and January 8, 2009, InternetVista verified the continued availability of 23 Belgian sites of electronic commerce: The 3 Suisses eBay.be, Fnac.be, Delhaize Wine World, Neckermann, Vandenborre, Free Record Shop, Bivolino, Azur, Bongo, Gift.be, HCW, La Redoute, Mac Line NetPrint, Unigro, Unikadoo, Weekendesk, HCW, Sherpa, Proxis Photo ConsoleShop Hall.
sites with the highest availability rate (100%) during this period are those of Proxis Mediadis, Neckermann and La Redoute. In the top rankings, are also identified FNAC (99.9%), eBay (99.9%), Unigro (99.98%) or 3 Suisses (99.95%).
The Christmas rush has hurt the Belgian e-commerce
In contrast, other sites have posted e-commerce heavy failures like Free Record Shop (22 hours off), Photo Hall (21h) or Delhaize Wine World (8). "The site of Free Record Shop has recorded more particularly from 8.30 cumulative downtime between 17 and December 19, that is to say, a critical period just before Christmas, explains Cédric Braem, Managing Director of InternetVista. From Meanwhile, Photo Hall has had two major breakdowns on 8 and 19 December. Finally, Delhaize Wine World has suffered a cumulative failure of 7:00 6 and 7 December. "
" Overall, the results are lower than the same study that we conducted last year, notes Cedric Braem. The unavailability total had reached 32 hours. Only a few companies such as Les 3 Suisses or Weekend Desk / Bongo have really improved their scores over last year. In general, we find that the Belgian sites, e-commerce have proven difficult to manage the flow of traffic between 19 and 20 December, probably when people made their last minute shopping before Christmas Eve . During these two days, the availability rate is sometimes decreased to 80% on some sites, which means smaller audiences and therefore revenue lost forever ... "
