Beating the January blues; retailers can’t afford network downtime as shoppers start to emerge again

One constant remains when managing transaction-based retail businesses; unshakable internet and wide-area network (WAN) connectivity is a non-negotiable business imperative. Retail businesses and grocery stores rely on it for transactions and revenue. As restrictions are eased again across the Globe, and shoppers look for new year deals, retailers need to ensure they have a connection that provides secure access to devices in all types of locations to achieve maximum revenue potential.

Network downtime is a common crisis, and with January sales, Valentines Day and COVID, stores expect to be busier than they have been since pre-pandemic. A wide range of issues can interrupt network traffic, for example, not enough bandwidth to handle all the traffic from interactive displays or IOT devices sharing information. This can disrupt retail activity and frustrate users and customers. Generally, wireline or broadband connections deliver around 99.5% uptime. However, even that degree of consistency can still result in hours of unplanned outages annually that disrupt a business’ ability to process credit card transactions, track inventory, or perform other mission-critical store tasks.

Regardless of the cause, network downtime carries a high cost and can cause serious damage to a store’s brand, reputation, and customer loyalty. According to a report by IDC, network downtime costs 80% of SMBs at least £15,000 per hour. On a larger scale, an outage of over a day in 2019 cost the American superstore chain, Target, an estimated US$100 million (~£73 million) in sales and left customers feeling frustrated with their shopping experiences. Shares fell 2 percent after the incident.

There are solutions, however, that can ensure critical systems resiliency all year round, enough to handle the increased demand at key shopping periods that may be a cause for outages. Particularly for retail businesses, modern 4G LTE and 5G mobile coverage can provide three main solutions, but, all-in-all, 4G LTE and 5G mobile networks can deliver high-bandwidth links to mission-critical equipment. Today, many retail organisations are looking to mobile connectivity as a panacea of easy, flexible bandwidth that can be deployed in green-field and pop-up deployments. For more traditional deployments, retail stores are using mobile broadband as a backup should the primary network go down—this is often termed as “network failover. Finally, out-of-band management (OOBM) tools can leverage mobile networks to significantly reduce downtime and the ability to manage any issues that may arise in-store remotely. 4G LTE and 5G networks are cheaper to run and easy to adopt, but most importantly, they will provide better security, better connection, and the network can handle more transactions at once!

Comparatively to the 99.5% previously mentioned, mobile carriers are increasing the reliability and availability of their 4G LTE networks to 99.99%. Plus, broader LTE coverage is erasing any speed discrepancies between wireline and wireless connections and will only strengthen now 5G is here. Thus avoiding the inherent difficulties of managing shared devices, conduits, and carriers with a wireless failover connection. Thanks to a separate mobile modem and dual sim cards, a store can switch between various wireless carriers making for a stronger, more reliable connection.

What does this mean for retail, aside from less downtime? Retailers are always looking for new ways to improve customer experiences to stay relevant in an ever-evolving shopping environment. By taking advantage of the latest technologies, a retailer can set itself apart from the industry competition. For example, setting up pop-up stores, kiosks, or interactive experiences can improve and increase customer engagement. Further emphasising the critical role reliable mobile connectivity plays, as these wouldn’t be possible with a traditional wireline network.

The remote management capabilities of OOBM wireless solutions reduce operational costs by easily enabling a smaller team to manage a much larger set of remote devices and locations. Staff can quickly connect to the affected systems, troubleshoot them anywhere, and get the system back online faster. Cloud-based tools let them provision, monitor, analyse, and control equipment via IP and Ethernet connections or via the native USB or serial console port if those are not available. There are no additional costs of travel, long delays waiting for a dispatched technician to fix the issue, or frustrating experiences trying to talk a remote worker through the diagnostic process.

Perhaps a more important benefit is the enhanced security enabled by advanced mobile networking devices. User authentication and authorisations must go through a comprehensive set of hierarchies, groups, and permissions to ensure that the right people access the critical devices. Security logs keep detailed records of who, when, and what was accessed and trigger local or remote alerts to comply with process controls and regulations. Granting temporary permission is also an option, making them suitable for the increasing use of third-party support and managed service providers.

Mobile connection with OOBM offers simplicity, with no need to replace an existing router or other network appliance. A store can connect via mobile routers that provide network connectivity separate from the primary lines and mobile adapters, directly connecting to the console port even if IP and Ethernet are unavailable. A port splitter makes it possible to support up to eight devices from one adapter, further broadening coverage in-store. Combined with multi-layer security features, retail organisations can quickly enable remote management to virtually anything, from the largest data centres to point-of-sale terminals.

Many retailers are discovering that mobile networking can create benefits in various locations, proving valuable for network failover, testing new equipment, and, perhaps most importantly, as a primary source of connectivity for customer engaging applications like pop-up stores and interactive experiences. Network and device uptime are essential for business continuity, particularly for retailers who have had a tough time and are looking to carry on the success of Christmas shopping into 2022. These mobile networking devices solve the out-of-band management problem for retail networks and lay the foundation for further transformation and innovation, crucial for enticing customers into stores. Crucially though, they keep retailers up and running 24/7, so that customers can keep shopping and transactions can keep coming in!