What Could an Internet Outage Cost Your Business This Holiday Season?
For Australian businesses, the holiday trading season is becoming increasingly important. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and Boxing Day sales can bring a significant increase in website traffic, customer enquiries, sales, in-store activity, and most importantly… revenue.
But what happens if your internet connection goes down?
Today an internet outage can mean far more than employees being unable to access email. Your website, EFTPOS terminals, cloud applications, phone systems, inventory platforms, security systems, and customer communications may depend on connectivity.
During any major sales period, even a relatively short outage can disrupt operations, frustrate customers, and result in lost revenue.
Why Internet Connectivity Matters More During the Holiday Trading Season
Australian businesses are increasingly dependent on reliable connectivity. Online retailers need internet access to process orders, manage websites, communicate with customers, and coordinate fulfilment. Physical retailers may rely on connectivity for EFTPOS, point-of-sale systems, inventory management, cloud software, CCTV, and staff communications.
Multi-site businesses have even more connectivity dependencies, with stores, warehouses, offices, and remote workers often relying on shared systems and networks.
The nbn states that business-critical applications and devices can depend on the quality and availability of a business connection, while equipment connected through the nbn network will not operate during a power blackout without appropriate backup arrangements. That means your internet connection should be treated as business infrastructure, not simply another utility.
What Could an Internet Outage Cost Your Business?
The financial impact of an outage varies considerably depending on your business, the duration of the disruption and which systems are affected. Rather than looking only at the cost of the internet service itself, businesses should consider the total cost of downtime. This can include:
Lost online sales
– If your website, eCommerce platform, payment gateway, or supporting systems become inaccessible, customers may be unable to complete purchases. During Black Friday or Cyber Monday, when customers are actively looking for limited-time offers, they may not wait for your website or payment system to come back online.
Failed in-store transactions
– Physical retailers can also be affected. If EFTPOS, point-of-sale systems, or cloud-based retail platforms rely on the internet, an outage can make it difficult or impossible to process transactions.
Disrupted customer service
– Your business phone system may also depend on your internet connection. Hosted VoIP, SIP, UCaaS, and cloud contact centre platforms can be affected when connectivity is lost. Customers may be unable to reach your team, while staff may be unable to make outbound calls. During the holiday season, this could mean missed sales enquiries, delivery questions, returns requests and customer complaints.
Employees are unable to access critical systems
– Today’s businesses commonly use cloud-based CRM, accounting, inventory, ERP, collaboration and productivity applications. If your internet connection fails, employees may suddenly lose access to the systems they need.
Disruption across multiple locations
– For businesses with multiple stores, warehouses or offices, an outage can have a much broader impact. A problem at one location may affect local operations, while a failure affecting shared network infrastructure could potentially disrupt multiple sites. This is one reason multi-site businesses should consider network redundancy, failover and managed connectivity.
The Risk Is Not Just an Internet Outage
Businesses should also consider what happens when their primary connection fails. An outage could be caused by a network fault, damaged infrastructure, equipment failure, power outage, severe weather, or another unforeseen event.
The ACCC’s June 2026 telecommunications data recorded both planned and emergency outages across fixed-line and other broadband technologies, demonstrating that network interruptions remain a real operational consideration for businesses.
Even if your primary internet service is generally reliable, there is no guarantee that it will always be available when you need it most. The question businesses should ask is: What happens to our business if our primary internet connection stops working?
How to Keep Your Business Online During an Outage?
One of the most important strategies is to introduce connectivity redundancy. Rather than relying entirely on one connection, businesses can consider backup options such as:
- 4G or 5G wireless backup
- Secondary NBN connectivity
- Fibre connectivity
- Enterprise Ethernet
- Fixed wireless
- Diverse connectivity providers
- Automatic failover
- SD-WAN
- Managed connectivity solutions
The appropriate solution depends on the business, location, applications, and required level of resilience. For example, a small retailer may need a straightforward 4G/5G failover connection to keep their EFTPOS operating.
A national retailer with dozens of locations may require a more sophisticated SD-WAN or multi-site networking solution capable of intelligently managing traffic across multiple connections.
SD-WAN Can Help Multi-Site Businesses Manage Connectivity
For businesses operating multiple stores, offices or warehouses, SD-WAN can provide greater visibility and control over network traffic. SD-WAN can use multiple connection types, such as fibre, NBN, broadband and LTE/5G, and intelligently manage traffic according to business requirements.
This can help organisations build greater network resilience while improving visibility across multiple locations. Telco Broker provides access to multiple SD-WAN providers and can assess different solutions based on an organisation’s requirements, network environment and budget.
Managed Connectivity Can Reduce the Impact of Outages
Businesses don’t necessarily need to manage connectivity problems themselves. Managed connectivity services can provide ongoing monitoring, optimisation, support, and network management.
Depending on the solution, managed connectivity can include business internet, Enterprise Ethernet, SD-WAN, multi-site networking, network monitoring, cloud connectivity, redundancy, automatic failover, and wireless backup.
This can be particularly valuable during peak trading periods when your business has less room for disruption.
Don’t Forget Your Phone System
Internet resilience should also extend to business communications. If your phone system relies on internet connectivity, an outage could prevent customers from reaching your business.
Businesses can consider continuity options such as call forwarding, mobile failover, cloud-based communications, redundant connectivity, and AI-powered call handling.
For example, Telco Broker provides managed voice solutions including VoIP, Microsoft Teams calling, SIP, contact centre solutions, UCaaS and AI-powered communications.
This can help businesses maintain customer communications even when trading volumes increase.
Prepare Before the Holiday Trading Season, Not During It
The worst time to discover your business needs backup connectivity is during a major sale. Before the holiday trading season, businesses should review:
- Current internet speeds and performance
- Connection reliability
- Existing outages and fault history
- Backup connectivity
- Automatic failover
- EFTPOS and payment dependencies
- Phone system continuity
- Cloud application requirements
- Multi-site network performance
- Mobile data requirements
- Service-level agreements
- Provider support arrangements
It is also important to test your failover arrangements rather than simply assuming they will work when needed.
How Telco Broker Can Help Keep Your Business Online
Choosing the right connectivity solution can be complicated. There are multiple providers, technologies, service levels, contract structures, and pricing models to consider.
Telco Broker works independently with Australian businesses to assess telecommunications requirements, compare providers and coordinate procurement and deployment.
Our services include business internet, NBN, fibre, Enterprise Ethernet, SD-WAN, mobile connectivity, VoIP, UCaaS, contact centres, network redundancy, and wireless backup solutions.
We can assess your current telecommunications environment, identify potential weaknesses, and compare alternative solutions designed around your business requirements and budget. We can also coordinate deployment and ongoing support, helping businesses avoid the complexity of dealing with multiple telecommunications providers themselves.
Don’t Let an Internet Outage Disrupt Your Holiday Sales
Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and Boxing Day represent important trading opportunities for Australian businesses. Your telecommunications infrastructure needs to be ready for the increased demand.
A reliable primary connection is important, but businesses should also consider what happens when that connection fails. Backup connectivity, automatic failover, managed networks, SD-WAN, and resilient voice services can help reduce the potential impact of an outage and keep your critical business operations connected.
Before the holiday trading season begins, talk to us about reviewing your internet and telecommunications infrastructure. Call 1300 978 073 or click here to book an obligation free chat about building a more resilient connectivity solution for your business.
FAQs
What Could an Internet Outage Cost Your Business This Holiday Season?
What can an internet outage cost a business?
The cost varies depending on the business and duration of the outage. Potential costs can include lost sales, failed transactions, lost productivity, disrupted customer service, missed calls, and delays to fulfilment and operations.
Why is an internet outage particularly risky during Black Friday?
Holiday trading can create significant increases in customer demand. If an eCommerce website, payment system, customer service platform, or business network becomes unavailable during peak trading, customers may be unable to complete purchases or contact the business.
Can an internet outage affect a physical retail store?
Yes. Physical stores may rely on internet connectivity for EFTPOS, point-of-sale systems, inventory platforms, cloud applications, security systems, and business communications.
How can a business stay online if its primary internet connection fails?
Businesses can use backup connectivity such as 4G/5G, secondary broadband, fibre, fixed wireless or other connections. Automatic failover can switch critical services to the backup connection when the primary service fails.
What is internet failover?
Internet failover automatically switches a business from its primary internet connection to a secondary connection when the primary service becomes unavailable or experiences a significant problem, call us on 1300 978 073 to find out more.
Is SD-WAN suitable for Australian businesses?
SD-WAN can be particularly useful for businesses with multiple locations or complex connectivity requirements. It can manage traffic across multiple connections and provide greater visibility and control over network performance.
Does Telco Broker provide backup internet solutions?
Yes. Telco Broker provides access to connectivity solutions that can include network redundancy, failover and wireless backup, alongside business internet, fibre, SD-WAN, and multi-site networking.
Can Telco Broker review my existing internet service?
Yes. Telco Broker can assess your current telecommunications environment, requirements, bandwidth, redundancy and budget, compare providers, and help identify suitable alternatives.
Should I review my business internet before busy holiday trading?
Yes. Reviewing connectivity before the holiday trading period gives your business time to identify capacity or resilience issues, implement backup services, and test failover before peak demand arrives.
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