• by Ray Schultz , November 3, 2021

Most retail marketers are worried that their technology will gum things up during this holiday season, according to the Sales Season Report from Contentsquare. 

For instance, 36.4% fear they will not see issues when they happen, and 34% dread their website or app going down. 

In contrast, only 25.1% worry about not hitting their sales targets. 

These issues are especially troublesome, given that marketers are now in the month of Black Friday. Last year, web traffic increased by 29.5% from October, Contentsquare reports. 

“Unfortunately, there are several different issues that can potentially crop up during sales season when you least expect it,” says Niki Hall, CMO at Contentsquare. “Whether it’s website outages or site crashes due to poor performance, or a broken page link or out-of-stock product, these can all severely damage conversion rates during the busiest time of the year."

Hall urges ecommerce marketers to use the right tools. 

“Whether it’s using digital experience analytics to identify the technical root causes of friction points in the customer experience or AI to gain valuable real-time insights into website issues, having the right tools in place can ensure that any site issues can be identified and fixed in good time,” Hall argues. 

Contentsquare also reports that 67% find the holiday season the most stressful term of their year. 

On a personal note, retailers experience these discomforts during the holiday sales season:

• Longer working hours — 48%
• Lack of sleep — 41%
• Poor work-life balance — 37% 
• Stress — 37%
• Sickness — 36%
• Poor mental health — 35%

Contentsquare surveyed 300 ecommerce professionals in August 2021.