The company says it expects to generate continued strong sales in the coming year. But customer retribution for inadequate Web systems isn't always immediate. And the impact that IT problems have on traffic and revenue varies with the company and its e-business model. In most instances, eBay auctions disrupted by site downtime are merely extended, while certain fees are refunded. Still, the same outages at an online brokerage or e-marketplace are potentially more devastating to customers.
Individual fortunes lie in the balance.
Entire industry supply chains could be disrupted. Plenty of competitors are just a click away, and they're getting more sophisticated all the time. If eBay continues to drop the ball, buyers and sellers will grow more leery. Just as you suspect your local mass merchandiser or restaurant isn't going to make it when the facility starts to fall into disrepair, customers will start wondering about e-businesses that don't pay enough attention to their infrastructure. It's just a matter of time.