This past holiday season has not been especially merry for the UK electronics retailer Dixons. According this story in the Daily Mail, because of continuing problems with its new e-commerce system, "many customers were unable to place orders online on the Currys, PC World and Dixons [owned] websites between December 26 and 28."
Boxing Day - the 26th and a big UK "shopping holiday" - was when Dixons launched its huge after-Christmas sale.
As a result of the computer-related problems, the company announced yesterday that it had lost some £15 million in revenue that it had expected. In addition, Dixons said that the severe winter weather in the UK caused roughly a £20 million hit to revenues as well.
Interestingly, some analysts seemed to believe the e-commerce glitch for the revenue hit more than the bad weather. While winter weather hit a lot of UK retailers, it apparently affected Dixons more than others analysts thought.
However, traders didn't seem to care why revenue sank: shares in Dixons fell by 10 percent on the news.
Robert N. Charette is a Contributing Editor to IEEE Spectrum and an acknowledged international authority on information technology and systems risk management. A self-described “risk ecologist,” he is interested in the intersections of business, political, technological, and societal risks. Charette is an award-winning author of multiple books and numerous articles on the subjects of risk management, project and program management, innovation, and entrepreneurship. A Life Senior Member of the IEEE, Charette was a recipient of the IEEE Computer Society’s Golden Core Award in 2008.