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Preparing for Holiday Traffic During COVID-19

by Mani Sundaram on November 6, 2020

We are headed into an unprecedented holiday season as COVID-19 continues to impact the world. For many, this means changing traditions and celebrating without family nearby. For Akamai, it means preparing to support our customers in a holiday commerce season of opportunities and challenges like nothing before.

This year, our customers are anticipating huge traffic to their sites. Shoptrak reported last month that in-person shopping will be down 22-25% this holiday season, and Deloitte projected that e-commerce sales will grow by 25-35%, with ecommerce holidays sales predicted to reach almost $200 billion.

For our Services and Support organization, holiday preparation is always a massive, cross-functional undertaking. Even in a normal year, our ecommerce customers rely on events like Black Friday/Cyber Monday (11/27-30) in the U.S, Singles Day in China and Diwali in India for large portions of annual revenue, and need a fast, secure experience for their shoppers. For many months, our dedicated holiday team and account executives have been meeting deadlines, monitoring risk, and regularly engaging with our customers.

This year, with so many more shoppers turning online, we’ll see longer holiday promotions and deals, making up more of our ecommerce customers’ holiday sales, but still expect traffic to peak on the traditional Black Friday/Cyber Monday schedule. That’s why Akamai is planning all hands on deck for an extended window this year, to make sure our customers can count on us during this make-or-break time for their business.

I know my family will be checking out the online deals at our favorite stores (Hint: I always look for cool devices)! If you turn to the internet for more of your shopping this season, I hope you’ll remember the Akamai teams working hard behind the seasons to give you the best gift-giving experience.