Website downtime is one of those things most businesses don’t plan for — until it happens.
One of our clients, a mid-sized online store, experienced this firsthand. Sales were steady, ads were running, and traffic was at its peak. Then, without warning, the WordPress site went down.
By the time it was fixed, the company had lost around €3,000 in sales in just one day.
And in similar cases we’ve seen, losses can easily climb to €10,000–12,000 when downtime hits larger campaigns.
The Problem: Plugin Related Downtime
The crash happened because a plugin was updated directly on the live site. It caused a conflict that brought the store offline.
Here’s what followed:
- Customers couldn’t complete orders
- Ads kept running, wasting budget with zero conversions
- Support inbox filled with complaints
- Panic across the team
What We Found
When we investigated, the root causes were clear:
- ⚠️ Plugin updates applied directly on the live site
- ⚠️ No staging environment for safe testing
- ⚠️ No recent backups to restore quickly
- ⚠️ No monitoring system to alert the team
It took 10 hours before the site was back online.
The Cost of Downtime
Here’s the calculation:
- Average order value: €80
- ~40 lost orders in 10 hours
- Direct sales lost: ~€3,000
That’s just for a smaller online store. For higher-traffic businesses running campaigns, the cost can balloon to €12,000+ in a single day.
The Solution: How do We Solve This
With a proper support plan, this would have been preventable:
✅ Updates tested on a staging site
✅ Automated backups ready for instant recovery
✅ 24/7 monitoring to catch issues before customers notice
✅ Clear rollback process in place
Final Thoughts
Downtime isn’t just “a technical glitch.” It’s a direct business risk with a very real price tag.
If your website generates revenue, ask yourself:
👉 How much would an hour of downtime cost you?
👉 Do you have a system in place to prevent it?
At Portnov Agency, we keep WordPress sites stable, secure, and profitable — so you never face surprises like this.
Explore our support plans here: portnov.agency/support