Everything Is Software - including your Christmas Presents

The world is gradually and surely turning into software.

Once upon a time we only had physical products to: keep us entertained, support us in the office and help us improve our everyday lives..... But now we have a raft of digital products and services that deliver our needs.

Consider the average teenager's Christmas present list 20 years ago and it would have included items such as : CD/tape music player, Compact Discs (or cassette tapes), pocket camera, alarm clock (well, I asked for one), games, etc.
 

Now all of these are all available as apps in your average smartphone and mostly free ones.

So what software is the average teenager asking Santa for this year?

Blue Monday : tips to help beat winter depression

If you haven't heard already, today is officially Blue Monday. Yes, the 21st January is the most depressing day of 2013.

If you find yourself at a low point at this time of year then you're not alone. Although today is supposed to be the worst day (although it was apparently originally given this title by a travel company, one of the many retail markets that usually see January as a busy month for bookings) a lot of people generally find January pretty hard-going. Me included. Although I do not officially have a recognised condition such as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), there is no doubt in either my mind, or my wife's, that I get a form of winter depression.

For myself it is undoubtedly a combination of factors, including a lack of daylight and weather (and moving to Scotland 6 months ago surely hasn't made a positive contribution to this), as well as a post-Christmas dip in energy and finances. This is then amplified by the need to sort out and pay not-only my quarterly company VAT bill but my yearly personal taxes.

But if you suffer a similar effect, here's a few things I have found that can help counteract the January blues:

Exercise:
Regardless of whether you feel the need to shake-off those extra Christmas pounds or not, get out and get your heart pumping (personally I've just ordered myself cycle trainer and have set my sights on competing in Scotland's only closed road cycling competition in May). But even if you don't have much time or the hefty credit card bill means you can't get that gym membership you wanted... any form of exercise can potentially release endorphins. So go walk the dog briskly, run to work or just get out and get some air through your lungs.

Light:
I'm lucky that the office I currently work in has big and wide windows that let lots of light in. However previously I've worked from home at this time of year in a north-facing room shadowed by trees and sometimes even worse... in an office with no natural light, where I really felt the effects. If you work in a similar environment, I really recommend you doing all you can to get the most chance of daylight. Swap seats with a colleague near the window, walk outside in your lunch break or even get yourself a SAD lamp such as this one:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lumie-Brightspark-Lightbox-Stylish-Aluminium/dp/B001JJEI5O
(My friend Alan swears his lamp really helps his productivity in the winter months)

Tell people how you are feeling:
Yes, I know it may sound a bit daft, but tell you family, friends and colleagues how you feel can help... Particularly if you're a bit down. Don't bottle it up and stew in your own juices... share your thoughts during the winter months.

Here's hoping you have a good 21 January. But if you suffer in a similar way or have any other tips on how to combat the winter blues, I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Why I want the Samsung Galaxy S4

It may seem strange to readers that I'm looking forward to the launch of a mobile phone that hasn't even been announced yet. But yes... I admit it, I'm eagerly awaiting the launch of the new Samsung flagship phone, the Galaxy S4 despite it not even being announced yet.

You see... I currently have an iPhone 4S that I've had since the end of 2011 (so only 14 months in reality). But, several weeks ago the power button broke on it, just a few days after its 12 month warranty period had passed. Despite a trip to my friendly local Apple store, the annoying news was that a fix required a replacement phone, which would cost me £130 (just a few weeks before Christmas).
Not willing to trade the kids presents in for a replacement mobile, I now I have a leading smart phone with one major issue: turning it off and on is no longer a feature.

So now I really want a new phone and to be honest, I want an Android handset again. In fact, I missed having an Android handset the day I took delivery of my iPhone 4S. And I missed it even more when I dropped the bloody Apple product in the first week of ownership and shattered its glass rear. Normal glass, the type that breaks into a million child-unfriendly pieces and makes a lovey crunching noise when you then go an buy a cover to put over it. Glass people. GLASS FFS !

Could I go and get myself a Samsung Galaxy S3? Or is that a Galaxy SIII? I'm not so sure Roman Numerals really look good on a modern communication device... which in that case would make the phone I now want the "SIV" (and I'm pretty sure that could be pronounced "sieve").
Sure I could! But now I'm pretty sure the S4 is due to be announced pretty shortly and made available not long after that.... and I want one!

I was teased even further last week when Samsung unveiled a flexible, foldable smart phone prototype at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jim6l2jRGQw&feature=youtu.be
But even seeing a folding LED screen due out in a couple of years couldn't abate my desire for the new Android S4.

Have yourself a very merry tablet Xmas

As sales of tablets continue to grow and the market fragments into numerous smaller ones that cater to different user needs (media player, e-reader, games machine, laptop replacement, etc)... The end users and the device makers both seem to be the beneficiaries. Worldwide sales are now predicted to climb to over an estimated 100 million units in 2012 (a 98 percent increase from 2011 sales of 60 million units according to Gartner, Inc.)

Also if you run a website, you will probably have seem the jump in tablet usage from your website analytics over the Chirstmas periods of the last two years. So therefore, it is highly likely that there will be another jump in tablet users this holiday period (I'll also try and use the phrase 'Holiday Period' more often, rather than just Christmas and New Year, as this trend is a global one... with users who celebrate Thanksgiving and Hanukkah also driving sales in the winter months).

So with over 60% of tablet owners planning to research and then purchase holiday gifts, decor and food items this Winter, it is highly likely that you will see yet another jump in tablet usage.  This means that if you have not already considered the compatibility of your website on such a device, you are already behind the curve. To make matters worse, the types of device you now need to build and test for have grown significantly in the last year.

It looks like site owners and online retailers have yet more headaches on the run-up to their busiest period.

Is your site ready for an ecommerce Xmas?

Yes, I know it's still 81 days until Christmas, but if you run an online store you're probably already preparing yourself for the busiest online sales period ever.

Or more to the point..... If you have not already prepared your website for the expected peak in Internet retailing in 2 and a half months, then you're leaving it very late to do anything about it!

Why?

1. Because as people feel the nights drawing in, they start to consider their Christmas presents for others. This means they're already browsing your site and some are carrying out early purchases to flatten out their seasonal spending.

2. Because properly assessing how to test your site for peak visitors and transactions takes time. From my experience: analysing, setting up tests and preparing for any volume & performance tests typically takes anything from 2 weeks upwards to do correctly.
Note: this can take far longer if you only have one environment (e.g. Live) to test against.

3. Because you don't just run one test during the middle of the day. You really should arrange a few tests over a longer period to get an average (Especially if you have any shared infrastructure).

4. Because there will always be something that needs to be fixed after you have tested your site. It may pass the expected volume tests, but if your developers or operational IT staff are watching carefully.... They will always find something to improve (meaning you should test again just to make sure).

Surviving a peak eCommerce Christmas - part 4

For the last few days I've been posting useful things to do on the run-up to peak Christmas online trading and ensuring your website can cope with the demands of your visitors . Here's my final post on the subject (for now):

Speak to the business
Understand the marketing activity planned over the festive period and the dates that they are aiming for most impact. What are their targets compared to last year? Rather than add to your load, they may be able to stagger their campaigns and flatten out demand over a more sustained period.

Have a plan for failure
You may see this as a little defeatist, but I always recommend having something up your sleeve in case the worst does actually happen. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to put an alternative site in-place within minutes and it may even be the case that you actually turn your site off when it comes under unprecedented demand. However the worst experience to give to your users is a very plain “site offline” message. Nothing says ‘go away and don’t come back’ like a server error page. At the very least make sure this page (probably a customer 500 error page) has some useful information such as your telephone customer service number and a list of your stores.

In summary…. There are still a number of actions you can take to try and de-risk the situation. Keeping your site stable over the peak period will then allow you to focus on the functionality and performance improvements in the new year, so that you’re more prepared for future peaks in demand.

Previous postings are here:
Part 3
Part 2
Part 1

Surviving a peak eCommerce Christmas - part 3

To help your company get through what is expected to be the businest online Christmas yet, I'm put together some helpful tips.

Set up your own monitoring
Some hosting companies provide a website monitoring service and others may even report on availability as part of a service level agreement. However I would personally have an alternative monitor that is within my control to provide an agnostic perspective. Although it is possible to build your own, there are a number of services out there that can go beyond a simple ‘ping’ of your homepage to confirm it is there and working. Some of the more developed monitoring services can also: check the availability of specific stock, confirm the whole transaction process is working, as well as checking & recording the response time of key pages. Often it is possible to predict problems before they happen. Websites tend to go slow before they break, so getting an email or SMS alert one evening that things are taking a longer than average time to respond… may be an indication that you’re about to lose your site completely.

Try to stress test before the peak comes
I know it is not always possible at the 11th hour to test an eCommerce site to the peak levels expected of the coming Christmas trade. But actually knowing how your site responds under high volumes has huge benefits regardless of the outcome…If it fails, you know when (and hopefully how it fails)… and knowing is always better than not. It may also give you a good indication of other remedial action you need to take. But if it passes and actually stands up to your anticipated load, you have the confidence to keep trading.

Previous posts on this subject are here:
Surviving Christmas Part 2
Surviving Christmas Part 1

Surviving a peak eCommerce Christmas - part 2

To help you get through peak Christmas trading this year, I'm posting as series of helpful tips.
Here's a couple more:

Optimise your images
eCommerce websites are not just made up of code, they typically include a lot of visual assets as well. Users downloading pages including high quality images and possibly video from your servers at busy times can cripple your hardware and bandwidth, degrading everyone’s experience. Ask yourself “Do I really need that huge photo on the homepage?” and even if the answer is ‘yes’ you should check to see if you can compress it even slightly with no obvious reduction in quality. Remember… compressing images to optimum levels should be part of your regular website publishing process and just because you have a great data connection in the office, don’t always assume your user has one too.

Speak with your hosting company
A lot of website availability issues occur when systems are subjected to unpredicted demand. You should already have some idea what your busiest day and hour figures are and when in the next few weeks this could be (if you also do your analysis right, you should also have a good idea of your peak visitors and transactions – see point 1). If you haven’t already, talk to your hosting company and share this information with them. Ask them what they can do to maintain site availability and what monitoring / alerting they have in place. Also discuss with them the possibility of temporarily boosting your bandwidth to higher levels should you need to.

The previous post is here:
http://press20.blogspot.com/2011/11/surviving-peak-ecommerce-christmas.html

Surviving a peak eCommerce Christmas

So how is your website going to get through Christmas? How can you test things to ensure you can survive this year's busiest periods? Here's some pointers to guide you....

Check your figures
Look back at your website analytics from the same period last year and see what volume of visits (not just unique visitors) and transactions you had back then. Dig down into the detail and record not just your peak daily figures, but your peak hourly or even your minute-by-minute maximums.Then multiply these numbers by the growth you’ve have had over the last year (always rounding up your figures, as it is always better to err on the side of caution). This will give you an idea of the peak figures you can expect in the next few weeks.

Check if you actually have any problems and what they are
If your site actually broke during peak trading last year (rather than just went slow), identify exactly when and how it broke. Speak with your IT Operations team to see if they can provide more detail about what happened and what action they took.Note: If you have hit similar peaks to last Christmas over the last year of online trading, also check to see if you had a reoccurrence at these points. If you haven’t, then you may have less than an issue than you thought.

Twas the month before Christmas...

Imagine the situation.... you've recently moved departments and been put in charge of your eCommerce website. However it is just a couple of weeks until Christmas peak trading. Perhaps you've also been told the site almost broke around this time last year and fear for the worst. Is it too late to do anything?

Don’t worry, there’s always something you can do to help your site survive peak holiday trading. Christmas and sale shopping are both a blessing and a curse for online retailers, as unlike their store counter-parts, website managers don’t have the ability to queue people out of the door and around the block. Instead sites have to be permanently available to deal with visitors, but when they want to arrive….

This is great for the bottom line if you can cater for this demand. But it is bad for business both financially and reputation-wise if you can’t.

Over the next few posts are my list of key things you should do to survive Christmas peak eCommerce trading....

Prepare yourself for an eCommerce Christmas

If you run a transactional website you just have 2 weeks to prepare for the busiest online shopping of the year! Get ready...

According to Amazon, Monday December 5 at 9pm will mark the peak of this year’s online Christmas shopping season in the UK. For other retailers the key date is sometime the following week, when people start to focus on the presents they need to get and panic buying sets in.

IMRG calculates Europeans will spend 52 billion euros online this year. This forecast is 20% up on last year, which was higher than anything else before it.

So.... "Will it meet this lofty projection?" I hear you ask. 'Quite possibly' is my view, as eCommerce sites try to market to their potential customers is as many ways as possible. And with newer innovations such as Facebook stores (FCommerce) in the mix, there's now even more ways to transact online.

Are your sites ready?

2009 in retrospective

With grateful thanks to John Lennon and Yoko Ono:
And so this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun

And what a year! (Phew!)... Our company (http://www.idealinterface.co.uk/) has grown in numbers and the projects we're working on, we've been busy pitching for some new work and also started work on some in-house projects that should start to reach fruition soon.

But what about 2010 and beyond, what does that hold in store?

Seth Godin recently asked a bunch of eminent thinkers and movers "what matters now?" and the results have just been published into this very interesting (and free) ebook:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/12/what-matters-now-get-the-free-ebook.html

Online retail will be 20% of all UK sales

Despite the economy shrinking by 0.4% in the last quarter, by 5.9% overall in the last year and now with the UK officially entered its longest period of recession in 54 years, there's some good news....

According to a report from Kelkoo recently, £8.9bn will be spent online this Christmas, that's 20 pence for every £ spent!

In a report by the Centre for Retail Research on behalf of Kelkoo, online shopping is anticipated to grow by 24% on last year!

More here:
http://www.kelkoo.co.uk/co_17053-kelkoo-press-release-christmas-2009.html

Christmas Delivery for loyal customers

A short posting today (and nothing to do with last night's Christmas Party, honest!). I just thought, as we've only 2 Amazon Super Saver shopping days to Christmas...








... that I'd share this article from yesterday's Internet Retailing site. A news article stated that "Customer loyalty does still exist — but free delivery and special offers are now the key retailer deciders".

The report from GSI Commerce, ( and I still find their website a little confusing) says that:

"pushing free delivery and special last-minute offers needs to be a priority in the final few days of online Christmas shopping,"

It seems that given the same product at the same price from 2 different eTailers, 68% of customers would opt for the one that offered free delivery. Although that's hardly a shocking fact, you do have to worry what the other 32% based their decision on.

However, more shocking was the news that Amazon is apparently mis-treating its warehouse staff to reach its incredible near-perfect delivery rate. It seems that free delivery may come at a cost in the end!