When the Web Wobbles: Major Retailers Hit by a Worldwide Glitch
Picture this: it’s the morning of a busy shopping day, and suddenly the biggest names in e‑commerce — Amazon, eBay, Etsy and Boots — are all gone dark. The internet’s infamous “hour of brokenness” has hit, and the fallout is already feel‑felt.
Who’s Paying the Price?
- Amazon – They usually pull in $950,000 per minute in sales; the outage forced some shops to pause for about an hour.
- eBay, Etsy, Boots – All down, all vital for shoppers.
- UK Government website & PayPal – The glitch reached even public portals and payment hubs.
- Other retailers on AWS and the Fastly CDN – Many relied on these services and felt the ripple effect.
The Back‑End Culprit
Fastly, a content delivery network that zips data to sites worldwide, stepped in and admitted the slip‑through. When Fastly falters, every website that relies on it shakes. And that’s exactly what happened here — for a blink, in every corner of Europe and the US.
What the Numbers Say
ParcelHero’s head of consumer research, David Jinks, predicts a staggering around $1 billion lost across UK, European and American retailers. “Time is money—especially online,” he says. Think of Amazon losing an entire hour of Prime Day sales or a Black Friday deal on Lightning Fast—money that’s made offline it’s just a different problem.
Lessons Learned (and Plan B’s)
Fastly reportedly patched the glitch quickly, but the outbreak has spotlighted a hard truth: when core cloud services wipe out, even the biggest marketplaces rust up. Companies now need to build a “Plan B” that lets them stay trading if the main stream goes down. Anything less? That’s a recipe for lost revenue.
Keep An Eye On The Fixes
Fastly’s response was swift, but with global services in play, vigilant backup plans are the new must‑have. It’s not just the “who” and “why” anymore; it’s the “how” you’ll keep your shop running when the tech hiccups.
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