Over 70 per cent of UK marketing executives say that it would be a serious problem or a complete disaster if their organisation experienced website downtime, a Zeus Technology survey reveals.

Of those questioned, 46 per cent admit that they are unsure whether or not they have a system in place to manage peaks of online traffic, while 53 per cent say if their website went down for one day, they would lose more than £10,000 in lost revenue, CBR Online reports.

And 65 per cent of marketing professionals state that they rarely or never spend time with the IT department in order to prepare for potential peaks in website traffic, the vendor’s research discovers.

Commenting on the findings, Graham Moore, e-retail specialist at Zeus Technology, says: “Consumers won’t think twice about abandoning their purchase if they experience downtime or a slowdown in service, so addressing this issue is critical in coming months.”

The chief executive officer of the vendor Paul Brennan recently warned that the infrastructure a website relies on must be scalable so that it can flexibly deal with fluctuating requirements.

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