How is it already near the end of October? We know our retailer customers have been heads-down thinking about code freezes and hypercare during the high season as we approach the holidays.

Disruption and pivoting quickly to meet changing customer expectations is nothing new to the retail industry. Mobile, social, millennials, and direct-to-consumer (DTC) are just a few of the more recent trends that retailers have had to adapt to—and despite how they’ve responded to behavioral shifts in the past, the pandemic threw perhaps the most sudden curveball in recent years.

The sudden shift to a digital-default mode of operations since shelter-in-place measures began earlier this year introduced a new world of always-on, digital traffic coupled with new customer behaviors, so it’s no surprise that there’s more pressure than ever before on teams supporting digital services.

In fact, we recently surveyed 700 DevOps and IT practitioners around the world and found that more than 80% of organizations have experienced a significant increase in pressure on digital services since the start of the pandemic.

Compared to six months ago, respondents reported a 47% increase in the number of daily incidents, and 62% of DevOps and IT responders work at least an extra 10 hours per week resolving incidents. And most importantly, it’s not going anywhere: 79% of DevOps and IT responders believe digital acceleration is their company’s number one priority in 2021.

Due to this additional reliance and focus on digital services, the pressure is on for retailers’ technical and customer support teams to keep the customer experience up and running—because in retail, every second matters and downtime can have a significant impact on your bottom line. That’s why we put together a webinar that addresses some of those challenges head-on.

Our webinar, “Delivering Always-On Digital Experiences in Retail” covers some of the trends that we’ve observed in retail over the years and features a fireside chat with Simon Skelton, Partner and Platform and Operations Manager; and Rob Hornby, Partner and Product Engineer, from UK retailer John Lewis Partnership. They shared their experiences navigating the waters of moving to fully digital model since COVID-19 struck, how they’ve juggled the responsibility of keeping an always-on, online presence while working from home, and what they’ve been doing to prepare for the tradition of Black Friday that hopped across the pond some years ago.

Register to watch the webinar on demand.