E commerce ebook-final

eBook

© 2013 New Relic, Inc US +888-643-8776 www.newrelic.com www.twitter.com/newrelic blog.newrelic.com

Add to Cart: How One Simple Purchase Led to Four Unique Stories of E–Commerce Success


eBook Add to Cart

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 :

CHAPTER 2:

CHAPTER 3:

CHAPTER 4:

CONCLUSION

03

04

09

12

16

19

With Visibility Comes Insight

The Beauty of a Single Pane of Glass

Fixing Problems Before They Happen

Up and Running in No Time

Table of Contents

http://www.newrelic.com

http://www.twitter.com/newrelic

http://blog.newrelic.com

eBook Add to Cart: How One Simple Purchase Led to Four Unique Stories of E–Commerce Success

© 2013 New Relic, Inc US +888-643-8776 www.newrelic.com www.twitter.com/newrelic blog.newrelic.com03

eBook

IntroductionOn a spring day in May 1984, Jane Snowball, a 72-year-old grandmother

living in Gateshead, England, went about her typical weekly errands, buying

groceries from her local Tesco supermarket. Unlike the rest of the world,

however, Mrs. Snowball didn’t travel to the store and make the purchase

in person; she did it from home using a modified domestic television

connected by a phone line to the Tesco store. This experiment—conducted

in partnership between the city’s Social Services department, Tesco and

7JINKKZXNTS�(TRUZYJWXæ\FX�YMJ�ąWXY�WJHTWIJI�TSQNSJ�XMTUUNSL�YWFSXFHYNTS��

and it led the way for companies like Amazon and eBay that spearheaded

the industry a decade later.

Fast-forward to today, and you’ll find an estimated 162,884 e-commerce

companies1 selling goods online every day. In 2012, global e-commerce

sales reportedly topped $1 trillion.2 And the American e-commerce market

is expected to grow 13 percent this year, with Forrester predicting web

shoppers will spend $262 billion by the end of 2013.3

With numbers like these, it’s safe to say the e-commerce industry is alive

FSI�ĆTZWNXMNSL��'ZY�YMFYèX�STY�YT�XF^�YMJ�GZXNSJXX�ITJXSèY�HTRJ�\NYM�NYX�

challenges. Performance bottlenecks, unplanned outages, and massive

traffic spikes can all cause downtime, not to mention the additional

fallout that ensues: lengthy and expensive maintenance, faulty checkouts,

poor user experiences, time lost working on strategic objectives. And

it’s not just the smaller companies that are suffering; these issues are

impacting the e-commerce giants as well.

In fact, a March 2013 report found that the world’s top e-commerce sites are

22 percent slower than they were the previous year.4 To make matters worse,

the three most widely used browsers—Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer—

all showed slower load times as well. Yet in the face of all this, users are

becoming increasingly impatient, with research suggesting that the average

Internet user has a wait time threshold of three seconds or less.

In an industry where the name of the game is speed, the way you manage

and monitor your e-commerce site can potentially make or break you. Some

of the most common application management and monitoring challenges

that e-commerce teams are facing include:

• Lack of deep visibility. Many e-commerce teams may feel they have

XZKąHNJSY�[NXNGNQNY^��GZY�\NYMTZY�F�IJJU�WTTYJI�[NJ\�NSYT�YMJ�MJFQYM�TK�

their applications, they never reach their potential in terms of speed and

responsiveness. This also means they lack valuable insights that can help

remove performance bottlenecks and improve user experiences.

1 http://clients1.ibisworld.com/reports/us/industry/ataglance.aspx?entid=19302 http://www.emarketer.com/Article/E-Commerce-Sales-Topped-1-Trillion-First-Time-2012/10096493 http://www.internetretailer.com/2013/03/13/us-e-commerce-grow-13-20134 http://www.webperformancetoday.com/2013/03/27/top-e-commerce-sites-are-slower-than-they-were-last-year/






eBook

• Disparate and disconnected tools. You may have one tool that tells you the

network is down. Another tool that tells you the site is slow. And yet another

tool that tells you how your servers are doing. Having to manage and monitor

all these separate tools can make performance monitoring much more time-

HTSXZRNSL�FSI�NSJKąHNJSY�YMFS�NY�SJJIX�YT�GJ�

• Lack of foresight. It’s common for e-commerce teams to be stuck in

constant reactive mode—often learning about an outage or problem through

HZXYTRJWXæFX�TUUTXJI�YT�UWTFHYN[JQ^�ą]NSL�UWTGQJRX�GJKTWJ�YMJ^�MFUUJS��

This is because they’re not getting a true understanding of site performance

in real time, which in turn, limits their predictive analysis.

• Limited deployment time. This is likely true across all IT functions, and it

RFPJX�NY�FQQ�YMJ�RTWJ�INKąHZQY�YT�UZWHMFXJ�YWFINYNTSFQ�TS�UWJRNXJ�XTQZYNTSX��

which not only carry a hefty price tag, but are also prohibitive when it comes

YT�XYFKąSL��&II�YT�YMFY�YMJ�HTRUQJ]NY^�FSI�XJY�ZU�YNRJ�TK�YWFINYNTSFQ�YTTQX��FSI�

you’ve got an e-commerce team desperately looking for an alternative solution.

The good news is you don’t need to have the budget of an Amazon or eBay

to solve these common challenges. Software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based

web application performance tools make it possible for a company of any

size—and with any budget—to improve application performance, and in turn,

customer satisfaction. These tools make it possible to monitor every detail of

your e-commerce application—from the end user experience, through servers,

down to the line of code—all through a single user interface. And because

SaaS-based application performance management (APM) provides added

KWJJITR��ĆJ]NGNQNY^�FSI�HTSYWTQ��^TZ�ITSèY�MF[J�YT�\TWW^�FGTZY�YMJ�J]HJXXN[J�

costs and obstacles of traditional on-premise options.

9MTZXFSIX�TK�HTRUFSNJX�FWJ�ZXNSL�8FF8�GFXJI�&52�J[JW^�IF^��KWTR�9NHPJYĆ^�

and Skullcandy to CanvasPop and Warby Parker. That’s because these

solutions give them:

• Accelerated problem resolution

• Anytime, anywhere app management

• Enhanced user satisfaction

• Reduced infrastructure and maintenance costs

In this e-book, you’ll learn how e-commerce companies of all shapes and sizes

are tackling application performance challenges and staying ahead of the

competition. Read on to explore four unique stories of e-commerce success

that resulted from one simple purchase: SaaS-based APM.





The need for deep visibility into an e-commerce application is typically a no-brainer: without it, you can’t see what’s going on, and in turn, aren’t FGQJ�YT�XJJ� FSI�ą]��UTYJSYNFQ�UWTGQJRX��>JY�IJXUNYJ�YMJ�HWNYNHFQ�SFYZWJ�TK�this capability, many e-commerce teams tend to settle for good-enough [NXNGNQNY �̂�9MJ^�ąLZWJ�NK�STYMNSL�GFI�MFX�MFUUJSJI�YMZX�KFW��YMJS�\M^�\TWW^$�Although this had long been the thinking at Warby Parker, eventually the e-commerce team realized that if it were to improve the performance of its site, then gaining deep visibility would need to be a strategic priority.

CHAPTER 1

With Visibility Comes Insight






How Warby Parker Cut its Average Load Time by 50%

Warby Parker offers boutique quality, classically crafted eyewear at

affordable prices. Founded in 2010, the company engages with many

customers directly through its website, avoiding traditional overhead

HTXYX�FSI�TKKJWNSL�ZSNVZJ��QNRNYJI�WZS��HZXYTR�ąY�XY^QJX�KTW�TSQ^�

$95—including the cost of polycarbonate prescription lenses and anti-

WJĆJHYN[J�QJSX�HTFYNSL��.YèX�ST�XZWUWNXJ�YMFY�HZXYTRJWX�FWJ�HQFRTWNSL�

to get their hands on a pair (or two, or three) of Warby Parker’s stylish

eyewear. But with the number of unique site visitors increasing by 30-

40% every month, the company’s rapidly growing engineering team

was under mounting pressure to keep pace with runaway success.

As a metrics-driven company generating a huge proportion of its sales

on the web, Warby Parker recognizes that website performance has

a direct impact on revenue. “For online consumers, a huge part of the

happiness quotient depends on fast load times,” explains Ali Khan,

the company’s Director of Technology. “We subscribe to the idea that

J[JW^��RNQQNXJHTSIX�TK�IJQF^�YWFSXQFYJX�NSYT�F�XNLSNąHFSY�IWTU�TKK�NS�

the number of people who will proceed to checkout.”

Despite this importance of fast load times, Warby Parker went for two

years without access to in-depth, up-to-the-minute information on the

site’s performance. “We had some basic data, but very little of it was

WJFQ�YNRJ�ë�XF^X�0MFS��ê<J�\JWJ�ITNSL�OZXY�ąSJ�NS�YJWRX�TK�UJWKTWRFSHJ��

so for a long time we saw no reason to change. But the fact remains

that we didn’t have deep visibility into our environment. As a result, we

weren’t reaching our potential in term of speed and responsiveness.”

Warby Parker uses New Relic to analyze website performance by state or region.






Measuring customer happiness with Apdex

Apdex is an industry standard to measure users’ satisfaction with the response

YNRJ�TK�FS�FUUQNHFYNTS�TW�XJW[NHJ��.YèX�F�XNRUQNąJI�XJW[NHJåQJ[JQ�FLWJJRJSY�

81&��XTQZYNTS�YMFY�LN[JX�FUUQNHFYNTS�T\SJWX�GJYYJW�NSXNLMY�NSYT�MT\�XFYNXąJI�

users are, in contrast to traditional metrics like average response time, which

can be skewed by a few very long responses.

Warby Parker relies heavily on New Relic’s Apdex score to track load times and

conversion rates, thus helping ensure a higher level of customer happiness.

8FF8�GFXJI�&52�FQXT�HTSYWNGZYJX�XNLSNąHFSYQ^�YT�YMJ�UWTIZHYN[NY^�TK�

Kahn’s team, giving them the insight necessary to make better-informed

decisions about where to focus resources. As a result, Warby Parker is

now in the enviable position of being as proactive as possible, as often

as possible. “We’re committed to customer happiness, which means

INXHT[JWNSL�FSI�ą]NSL�UWTGQJRX�GJKTWJ�YMTXJ�UWTGQJRX�FKKJHY�ZXJWX��

New Relic gives us the data we need to stay far ahead of the curve—and

keep those customers coming back for more.”

That all changed, however, when Khan and his team learned about

SaaS-based APM solution New Relic. They installed the software in less

than an hour, and quickly realized how much it could change Warby

Parker’s whole approach to measuring the success of each deployment.

“New Relic enables us to measure like we’ve never measured before,”

explains Kahn. “Now, every time we deploy new code—which we do

two or three times each week—we can see, in near real time, if load

times increase or decrease. We’re able to measure performance in

terms of geography, so we can monitor our Canadian website with far

more precision than before. We can even analyze data on a state-by-

state or region-by-region level.”

With help from New Relic, Warby Parker cut average load times by

50% in just three months. “We’ve been very aggressive in addressing

any weaknesses across our site in the midst of exponential growth,”

says Kahn. “You can’t make that kind of improvement in such a short

amount of time unless you have the latest information available at your

ąSLJWYNUX��\NYM�YMJ�IJJUJXY�UTXXNGQJ�[NXNGNQNY^�NSYT�^TZW�X^XYJRX��9MFYèX�

what New Relic gives us.”

Learn more about Warby Parker’s online success:newrelic.com/case-studies/warby-parker




http://newrelic.com/case-studies/warby-parker


When business is good, it can be a double-edged sword: on the one hand, you see revenues skyrocket; yet at the same time, massive spikes in demand leave the engineering team scrambling to keep pace. This is especially true when you’re a monitoring-centric company like 9NHPJYĆ^��\MNHM�UZWXZJX�F�HTSYNSZTZX�IJUQT^RJSY�XYWFYJL^�YT�RT[J�swiftly and release software quickly. Understanding the importance TK�HTSXYFSY�RTSNYTWNSL��9NHPJYĆ^�IJUQT^JI�YMJ�3J\�7JQNH�5QFYKTWR�YT�combine metrics from many technologies into a single platform, and simplify its overall testing process.

CHAPTER 2

The Beauty of a Single Pane of Glass






-T\�9NHPJYĆ^�8QFXMJI�*WWTW�7FYJX�FSI�Improved Customer Satisfaction

+TZSIJI�NS��9NHPJYĆ^�NX�F�IFYF�IWN[JS�YNHPJYNSL�FSI�RFWPJYNSL�

platform for professional event promoters and venues in the United

States and Canada, from general admission clubs to festival grounds

and theaters with reserved seating. The company works with some of

the most respected venues and promoters in North America, including

Brooklyn Bowl, Austin City Limits Live, the Independent in San

Francisco, the Troubadour in Los Angeles, the Virgin Mobile FreeFest

in Washington, D.C., and the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago.

>JFW�T[JW�^JFW��9NHPJYĆ^�MFX�GJJS�RFPNSL�YWNUQJ�INLNY�WJ[JSZJ�LFNSX��

But of course, with that growth, also comes its own share of challenges.

“As we gear up for another summer concert season, we know that our

system will undergo an immense amount of stress,” says Matthew

'FNWI��;5�TK�*SLNSJJWNSL�FY�9NHPJYĆ^��ê9T�UWJUFWJ�KTW�YMFY��\J�SJJI�

to achieve a 10x increase in site performance.”

+TW�9NHPJYĆ^��XNYJ�UJWKTWRFSHJ�NX�KFW�KWTR�F�[FLZJ�NIJFQæNYèX�F�GZXNSJXX�

imperative. Event attendees are looking to spend their discretionary

YNRJ�TS�F�ąWXY�WFYJ�J]UJWNJSHJ��FSI�YMJ^�MF[J�_JWT�YTQJWFSHJ�KTW�XQT\�TW�

unresponsive systems in any part of the process. So when Baird joined

the company in January 2013, he was glad to see that it already had a

SaaS-based APM solution in place. “I was familiar with New Relic from

my time at a previous company,” he says. “It’s been tested through millions

of hours of use, and it’s easily the most mature solution of its kind.”

Warby Parker uses New Relic to analyze website performance by state or region.






One platform to monitor everything

+TW�9NHPJYĆ^��MF[NSL�FHHJXX�YT�FS�TUJS�UQFYKTWR�NX�XNRUQ^�F�RZXY��&X�

2FYYMJ\�'FNWI��9NHPJYĆ^èX�;5�TK�*SLNSJJWNSL�UZYX�NY��ê9MJ�3J\�7JQNH�

Platform empowers developers. You can easily build your own plugins

to address almost any issue. And if you want to monetize or build another

channel, you can use this platform for marketing and promotion. The

possibilities are truly endless.”

New Relic is the main tool that Baird uses on a day-to-day basis,

helping him keep a close eye on the frontend ticket-purchasing

application and the backend event-management application. By

NSXYWZRJSYNSL�9NHPJYĆ^èX�WJ[JSZJ�IFYF�YMWTZLM�YMJ�3J\�7JQNH�

dashboard, Baird is able to generate up-to-the-minute reports on

sales performance. He can easily break out how many tickets the

HTRUFS^�XTQI��FQTSL�\NYM�YMJ�QFYJXY�XFQJX�YWJSIX�TS�9NHPJYĆ^èX�RTGNQJ��

desktop, and social channels.

Ticketfly also uses New Relic to supplement data from other

applications. For example, Baird and his team rely on BlazeMeter

to determine rate-limiting reactions in large tests—a practice that

initially forced them to keep multiple windows open throughout the

testing process. But now, with the New Relic Platform, that

UWTHJXX�NX�LWJFYQ^�XNRUQNąJI�

9MJ�3J\�7JQNH�5QFYKTWR�XYTWJX�FQQ�TK�9NHPJYĆ^èX�KF[TWNYJ�RJYWNHX�NS�F�XNSLQJ�

view, helping the company achieve instant visibility into an increasingly

complex environment. Baird and his team can choose from a number of

plugins already created by an open community of developers, or they

can create their own plugins to solve unique problems.

'^�ZXNSL�FS�TUJS�8FF8�GFXJI�UQFYKTWR��9NHPJYĆ^�NXSèY�OZXY�XF[NSL�YNRJ �YMJ�

company is achieving a deeper understanding of a broader range of data.

“It’s like having an MRI of our applications, showing us a slice of data across

all systems and making it easier for us to draw correlations,” says Baird.

<NYM�YMNX�QJ[JQ�TK�[NXNGNQNY^��9NHPJYĆ^�FHMNJ[JI�XYZSSNSL�WJIZHYNTSX�NS�JWWTW�

rates. In just one 12-week period, errors in the Wordpress stack dropped

by 98%. The ticket-purchasing application dropped to a zero percent

error rate. Average response time dropped from 800 milliseconds to

250 milliseconds. And the company achieved all of those improvements

during a time of remarkable growth: during that same 12-week period,

requests made a massive jump—from 3.27 million to 10.2 million.

“We can see real issues now, and increase performance by 10x through

dispatching alone,” says Baird. Perhaps most important of all, these

NRUWT[JRJSYX�MJQU�9NHPJYĆ^�XJW[J�HZXYTRJWX�J[JS�GJYYJW��9MJ��\JJP�

period of error reduction corresponded, not coincidentally, with

F�XNLSNąHFSY�NSHWJFXJ�NS�HQNJSY�XFYNXKFHYNTS�QJ[JQX�

Learn more about 9NHPJYĆ^èX�IJUQT^RJSY�XYWFYJL^:SJ\WJQNH�HTR�HFXJ�XYZINJX�YNHPJYĆ^




http://newrelic.com/case-studies/ticketfly


Whether it’s budget constraints, a growing priorities list, or the fact that you’re operating as a lean and mean IT team, there are a number of reasons why e-commerce companies can get stuck in a constant reactive frame of mind. Looking to shift towards more proactive operations, CanvasPop decided to overhaul its entire web programming system, and in the process, realized how critical a role SaaS-based APM plays in helping improve overall site performance.

CHAPTER 3

Fixing Problems Before They Happen






How CanvasPop Cut Application Response Time to Microseconds

Since 2009, CanvasPop has delivered more than 280,000 high-

quality, custom-made canvas photo prints to 100,000+ customers

across North America. Like any online retail business, CanvasPop

J]UJWNJSHJX�RFOTW�XUNPJX�NS�YWFKąHæXTRJ�RTWJ�UWJINHYFGQJ�YMFS�

TYMJWX��2TXY�TK�YMJ�XNYJèX�YWFKąH�FUUJFWX�IZWNSL�YMJ�KTZWYM�VZFWYJW�

holiday season, when average page views rise from about 250,000

per day to as many as 700,000 per day. At other times of the year,

heavy media coverage may cause similar jumps in demand. “We

love the exposure,” says Paul Brohman, Lead Software Developer

at CanvasPop. “But the exposure won’t do us any good if our site

can’t handle those unexpected visitors.”

In late 2011, customer demand was threatening to exceed the scale of

the CanvasPop infrastructure. That’s when the IT team determined

that unless they performed a major site overhaul, the customer

experience would suffer. In order to build a more scalable infrastructure

and keep a closer eye on system performance, CanvasPop decided

to migrate their entire system from ASP to PHP.

After a six-month process of building and testing, CanvasPop went

live with its new PHP-based system on August 1, 2012. The New Relic

PHP client was with them every step of the way. “Deploying New

7JQNH�\FX�F�ą[J�RNSZYJ�OTG�FY�RTXY�ë�XF^X�'WTMRFS��ê&SI�NY�XYFWYJI�

giving us actionable information within minutes.”

It wasn’t long before the CanvasPop IT team realized that they

could use SaaS-based APM to monitor not just the new PHP system,

but legacy systems as well. Today, New Relic plays a crucial role in

CanvasPop’s continuous deployment strategy, providing the real-

time data necessary for engineers to deploy changes to production

an average of three to four times every day.

A better way to view Transaction Traces

Although Google Analytics can be a helpful tool for viewing transaction

traces, the CanvasPop IT team considers it “more of a marketing

dashboard.” The web transactions in New Relic, however, are more

engineering-focused, allowing them to see the slow points in terms

of database memcache or rendering.






“This is a single, unified solution that gives us the same interface

and reports whether we’re in dev, test, or prod,” says Patrick Leckey,

Senior Developer and Lead Systems Architect at CanvasPop.

“And that helps anticipate many production issues that otherwise

wouldn’t show up in testing.” Whether monitoring the dot-com

frontend or the manufacturing backend, New Relic gives CanvasPop

the tools and features necessary to keep all systems on track.

With SaaS-based APM, CanvasPop’s application performance isn’t just

faster—it’s more consistent, too. New Relic proved especially valuable

when Amazon Web Services experienced a major outage on the East

Coast of the United States in October 2012. “New Relic alerted us to

the Amazon outage before Amazon did,” says Leckey.

In addition to providing up-to-the-minute metrics for proactive

problem solving, having SaaS-based APM also helped CanvasPop IT

address longstanding issues that had simply gone unnoticed. With

faster, easier access to performance metrics—and with all metrics

generated by a single solution—New Relic contributes to a major

boost in productivity, not to mention, knowledge-sharing across the

organization. “Broader awareness means better alignment across all

CanvasPop teams,” says Leckey. “And I credit New Relic with giving us

the most accurate, most current data we’ve ever had for moving this

business forward.”

Learn more about the CanvasPop story:newrelic.com/case-studies/canvaspop

CanvasPop now has application performance that is faster and more consistent.




http://newrelic.com/case-studies/canvaspop


'^�ST\��RTXY�J�HTRRJWHJ�HTRUFSNJX�MF[J�QNPJQ^�GJSJąYYJI�NS�TSJ�\F^� or another from using a SaaS-based solution. These products are affordable and they’re quick to deploy, making them perfect for e-commerce environments that need APM—especially when they need the service up and running immediately. Skullcandy saw the time and cost savings that would come from using SaaS-based APM compared to a traditional on-premise solution. And thanks to its decision to go with SaaS, the e-commerce team is seeing measurable improvements.

CHAPTER 4

Up and Running in No Time






How Skullcandy Successfully Launched a Brand New E-Commerce Site

Skullcandy became one of the world’s most distinct audio brands

by bringing color, character and performance to an otherwise

monochromatic space and helped revolutionize the audio arena by

introducing headphones, earbuds, and other audio and wireless lifestyle

products that possess unmistakable style and exceptional performance.

When the company launched its e-commerce site in 2008, it took off

immediately. Built on the Magento e-commerce platform with PHP and

Linux, the online channels’ sales growth has challenged the interactive

team to keep up with accelerating demands. And eventually, the site’s

growing pains got worse with a number of performance issues.

Unplanned outages were on the rise, usually occurring more than

TSHJ�F�\JJP�FSI�TKYJS�KTW�XNLSNąHFSY�IZWFYNTS��8NSHJ�TZYFLJX�JVZFYJ�

to lost revenue, and potentially, even to lost customers, Skullcandy’s

interactive team immediately sought to identify the solution and

KN]�NY��&QYMTZLM�F�SJ\�XHWNUY�ą]JI�F�RJRTW^�QJFP�YMFY�\FX�HFZXNSL�

the problem, Skullcandy still lacked proactive real-time performance

RTSNYTWNSL�FSI�RFSFLJRJSY�YTTQX��\MNHM�RFIJ�NY�INKąHZQY�YT�XJJ�

what was going on in real time.

Based on a recommendation, the Skullcandy team decided to give

New Relic a try. They were immediately delighted by the ease of

implementation. And even more delighted with how fast they had

actionable data and information. Andrew Spencer, Skullcandy’s

Director of Interactive Technology, attributes much of that success

to the fact that New Relic is a SaaS-based solution.

ê.Y�TSQ^�YFPJX�FGTZY�ą[J�RNSZYJX�YT�NSXYFQQ�YMJ�FLJSY�ë�MJ�XF^X��ê&SI�

once we added it to our provisioning, all our servers get New Relic

FZYTRFYNHFQQ^�\NYM�ST�FIINYNTSFQ�HTSąLZWFYNTS�WJVZNWJI��(TRUFWJI�YT�

that, the enterprise products I’ve used in the past took at least 30 days

YT�HTSąLZWJ�GJKTWJ�^TZèI�MF[J�FS^�IFYF�YMFY�\FX�ZXFGQJ��<NYM�3J\�

Relic, we get everything we need from a single service—alerts, error

monitoring, transaction traces, application statistics, etc., and best of all,

we got immediate results and insights that we just had not seen before.”

Navigating the App Map

An Application Topology map (App Map) illustrates your app and its

related services as an architectural map. It also shows performance

problems in your app’s end-user experience, your app itself, and any

of the internal or external services backing your app.

Skullcandy’s use of the App Map feature is interesting. The team wrote

their own internal services to replace parts of Magneto’s system, as

\JQQ�FX�2FLSJYT�J]YJSXNTS��9MJ�ąWXY�\FX�YMJ�HTZUTS�X^XYJR�YMFY�YMJ^�

rewrote as an external service. When the system makes an HTTP call

to the external service, New Relic monitors that performance via the

App Map. This new process helped the e-commerce site’s performance

improve by 25%.






Skullcandy has achieved some notable results using New Relic, including

a mean time to resolution improvement of 300%. It’s also made staff’s

QN[JX�JFXNJW�G^�WJIZHNSL�YMJ�SZRGJW�TK�JRJWLJSHNJX�FSI�ąWJ�IWNQQX�YMFY�

would otherwise make them frazzled.

When the company released its new e-commerce site, Skullcandy 2.0, in

2011, having SaaS-based APM especially came in handy. To get ready for

the launch, the team used New Relic to monitor the application, which

MJQUJI�GTTXY�YMJNW�HTSąIJSHJ�QJ[JQ�XNLSNąHFSYQ �̂�ê4SHJ�\J�XYFWYJI�ZXNSL�

New Relic, we had immediate insight into the application, how it was

UJWKTWRNSL��\MJWJ�NXXZJX�\JWJ�ë�XF^X�8UJSHJW��ê<J�MFI�YMJ�HTSąIJSHJ�

we needed to move forward even knowing that late in the year is not

the best time to launch a new online site.”

9MJ�XJHTSI�YMJ�XNYJ�QFZSHMJI��8UJSHJW�FSI�MNX�YJFR�XF\�F�XNLSNąHFSY�

performance problem that was not revealed by prior tests. But within

minutes, New Relic pinpointed the problem, highlighting both slow

VZJWNJX�FY�YMJ�IFYFGFXJ�QJ[JQ�FX�\JQQ�FX�XUJHNąH�5-5�GTYYQJSJHPX��.Y�YTTP�

less than 30 minutes to see and fully diagnose the problem. The team

MFI�ą]JX�NS�UQFHJ�OZXY��RNSZYJX�QFYJW��9MJ�\MTQJ�UWTHJXX�YTTP�QJXX�YMFS�

an hour, and after that, the site just hummed.

8F^X�8UJSHJW��ê-FI�\J�STY�GJJS�FGQJ�YT�INXHT[JW��NIJSYNK^��ą]��WJQJFXJ��

and monitor those issues that quickly, we would have had to roll back

and wait until Q1 of the next year to implement the new site. Thanks

to New Relic, Skullcandy 2.0 went live on time—our internal customers

were pleased and so were we.”

Learn more about the full scoop on the launch of Skullcandy 2.0:newrelic.com/case-studies/skullcandy

SkullCandy boosts sales with a new online channel.




http://newrelic.com/case-studies/skullcandy



ConclusionIn today’s highly competitive e-commerce landscape, the success of your

company directly correlates with how quickly you’re able to pinpoint and

solve performance issues. After all, poor website performance translates

into lost revenue, brand damage and additional support costs for your

company. And when it’s peak shopping season, the pressure can be

especially overwhelming.

To ensure a positive shopping experience for customers, e-commerce

companies just like yours are turning to SaaS-based APM to improve

performance and ease application management and monitoring. With

these cloud-driven capabilities, you’ll be in the perfect position to increase

revenue and drive business growth.

APM Assessment .K�^TZèWJ�MF[NSL�ITZGYX�FGTZY�^TZW�HZWWJSY�&52�XTQZYNTS��FSX\JW�YMJ�VZJXYNTSX�GJQT\�YT�XJJ�NK�NYèX�YNRJ�YT�ąSI�FS�FQYJWSFYN[J�

QUESTION

&WJ�\J�RJFXZWNSL�WJFQ�JSI�ZXJW�J]UJWNJSHJX�TS�TZW�\JGXNYJ�YTIF^$

&WJ�\J�RJJYNSL�HZXYTRJW�81&X$

.X�TZW�J�HTRRJWHJ�XNYJ�TKKJWNSL�HTSXNXYJSY�WJXUTSXJ�YNRJX�FHWTXX�ZXJWX�FSI�LJTLWFUMNJX$

)T�\J�MF[J�ZSIJW�UJWKTWRNSL�WJLNTSX$�)T�\J�MF[J�F�\JG�UJWKTWRFSHJ�UQFS�NS�UQFHJ�YT�HTWWJHY�YMTXJ�UWTGQJRX$

.X�TZW�XNYJ�IJQN[JWNSL�F�HTSXNXYJSY�HZXYTRJW�J]UJWNJSHJ��WJLFWIQJXX�TK�GWT\XJW�Y^UJ$

)T�\J�PST\�MT\�TZW�\JGXNYJ�WJXUTSXJ�YNRJ�FSI�F[FNQFGNQNY^�HTRUFWJX�\NYM�TZW�HTRUJYNYNTS$

Can we quantify how third-party technology and services, such as ad networks and payment processes, are NRUFHYNSL�TZW�XNYJèX�UJWKTWRFSHJ$

Yes NoNot Sure

If you answered “No” or “Not Sure” to any of the questions above, it may be time for you to consider an APM alternative.

To learn how you can improve your e-commerce site’s performance and boost user satisfaction, visit: www.newrelic.com.






New Relic, San Francisco HQ188 Spear Street, Suite 1200

San Francisco, CA 94105

New Relic, Portland111 SW 5th Avenue, Suite 2800

Portland, OR 97204

New Relic, Seattle2101 4th Avenue, 19th Floor

Seattle, WA 98121

Tel: +1.888.643.8776

[email protected]

www.newrelic.com

About New RelicNew Relic is a software analytics company that makes sense of billions of

metrics about millions of applications in real time. Our comprehensive SaaS-

based solution provides one powerful interface for web and native mobile

applications and consolidates the performance monitoring data for any

chosen technology in your environment. When your brand and customer

experience depend on the performance of modern software, New Relic

provides insight into your overall performance.




©2008-13 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.