10 Reasons Why Your Brand Needs a Disaster Recovery Strategy

When you’re in business, disaster can strike at any time. That’s why developing a robust disaster recovery strategy is of vital importance – especially if you’re in the ecommerce industry. From managing orders to keeping customers’ data safe, there are many business practices you need to keep consistent and secure to make your company run smoothly. If you’re still unsure how disaster recovery would work for you, read on to learn exactly why your brand needs a disaster recovery strategy.

What is a disaster recovery strategy used for?

With the best will in the world, disasters do happen. Even if your brand is working at peak performance, a disaster – whether natural or manmade – can come at any time and sweep all your hard-earned progress away.

A disaster recovery strategy helps you to plan in steps to get your business’ technology and infrastructure working properly in the aftermath of a disaster. It also covers how you’ll keep your business running as smoothly as possible in the face of major disruption, and will assist you in putting measures in place to ensure your business continues to operate successfully through future disasters.

Why does my brand need a disaster recovery strategy?

There are many reasons why understanding how to manage disaster recovery is important to maintaining continuity and success in your ecommerce business:

Human error is more prevalent than you’d think

We all make mistakes – but sometimes these mistakes are very costly, and that’s why your business needs to be prepared for disasters caused by human error. From clicking on an infected link in an email to shipping the wrong order, human error can spiral into dramatic losses for your business. For example, according to a report from IBM, the average cost of data breaches caused by human error is $3.33 million dollars. That’s a loss no business can afford to make.

Natural disasters can be catastrophic

As well as human error, nature can cause terrible damage to your technology and infrastructure too. Whether it’s hurricanes, earthquakes or flooding, natural disasters can destroy vital equipment, leading to potential losses of data and revenue. Weather problems can also prevent your staff from getting to the workplace and cause disruptions with your supply chain.

Data breaches and cybercrimes are on the rise

From phishing to malware, cybercrimes have risen dramatically in the past few years – and have cost well-known companies millions, and even billions, of pounds. Data breaches compromise the sensitive data of your customers – as well as your finances and your reputation. Plus, as ransomware can hold your files to ransom, you could find yourself locked out from your business altogether.

Hardware failures can stop your business in its tracks

Problems with your business’ hardware can be incredibly disruptive, cutting you off from your data and preventing staff from working. In one survey, 37% of small and medium businesses interviewed had lost customers due to hardware downtime, so it’s vital to include preparations for hardware failure within your disaster recovery strategy. Utilising cloud services is a huge part of this strategy – as it means you will continue to have access to your files even when the hardware is down.

COVID-19 and other epidemics can leave your brand unprepared

As the past couple of years have shown, the retail industry is sometimes required to change its strategy almost overnight. As COVID-19 restrictions led to shops closing temporarily, ecommerce received a boom of new sales as people remained indoors.

However, worldwide pandemics can also leave businesses unprepared. Many businesses had to shift their entire infrastructure without warning – and whilst the increase in orders for some brands was arguably a positive, some businesses were unprepared to manage the volume of orders, leading to lost custom and a negative reputation.

Disaster recovery keeps you ahead of the competition

No matter what industry, you’ll always have competitors – and if their disaster recovery strategy is well-prepared, you won’t be able to compete when a challenging situation strikes. Customers will be more likely to stick with you during a disaster if you respond quickly and effectively to problems, ensuring that their orders are still met in a timely manner.

Disaster recovery improves your awareness and prevention skills

Prevention is better than cure. Once you understand how to manage disaster recovery, you’ll know exactly what to look out for to ensure your business is protected against certain kinds of future disasters. Whether that’s ensuring staff members are trained to deal with cyber threats, or keeping archived files in secure cloud storage, remaining constantly aware of potential risks and solutions keeps your business safe.

Continuity is vital to your ecommerce business

Many old-fashioned recovery plans took several days to complete when put into practice. Whilst this might have worked in the past, in the digital age, it doesn’t cut it. The majority of ecommerce businesses can’t afford downtime that lasts one to several days. Most companies will need a 100% uptime rate, with any maintenance completed alongside daily business.

Customer service needs to be maintained

Simply put, your ecommerce business provides customers with products – and if it’s unable to fulfill those customer orders, the reputation of your business will be damaged. Understanding disaster recovery guidelines and putting them into practice through a clear strategy ensures that customers will continue to get what they need from your business, even during challenging events.

Disaster recovery supports your finances

If your business is offline or experiences a data breach, this can naturally be very damaging for your company finances. Frequently, companies that haven’t prepared for disaster are unable to make it through due to the financial costs. Having a strong disaster recovery strategy in place means shorter downtimes, the continuation of order taking and shipping, and the prevention of disastrous breaches, reducing the chances of harsh financial losses.

Keep your business secure and consistent with a disaster recovery strategy

When disaster strikes, it helps to be aware of ecommerce disaster recovery guidelines to repair and restore your business. But sometimes this can be easier said than done, and on those occasions, it’s best to have a supportive, experienced team working alongside you.

At Bing Digital, we have over 20 years’ experience to provide you with tailored recovery support. We can guide you through solutions, as well as supporting your IT staff to deliver response plans. We will review your existing back-up solutions, and provide alternatives where needed, as well as using a data-based approach to test your business’ resilience strategies and helping you to create business continuity plans.

Want to learn more about disaster recovery? Contact us to get the ball rolling.