News

Local retail businesses feel impact of Facebook outage

The six-hour Facebook outage wasn’t just a nuisance for some, it was a hit in the wallet to local business owners who rely on the social media giant for sales.

Stacey Leighton and Maria Falcione have a clothing and jewelry shop on Main Street in Walpole. But the duo also sells their items online.

Leighton, owner of Design on a Dime Women’s Boutique, attributes 50% of her profits to online and social media sales. Falcione, owner of Maria Elaina Designs, sells about 75% of her jewelry and other accessories on Facebook and Instagram.

“This is our income. It’s huge for us,” Falcione said of the Facebook outage Monday. “I gave up my other career. So, it’s all we count on.”

The store is closed on Mondays, so the pair can focus on online sales and shipping. When they realized Facebook was down, it was utter panic.

>>>PREVIOUS: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp services being restored slowly, company confirms

“I thought something was wrong with my phone,” Leighton said. “So, I shut my phone down, I removed the Facebook app. I was in panic mode. And then I finally wrote Maria. And I’m like, ‘What is going on? This our livelihood.’”

Facebook and Instagram, as well as instant messaging service WhatsApp, went down worldwide Monday. Facebook apologized to users on Twitter Monday evening as it slowly restored services but didn’t elaborate on the issue that forced the shut-down.

Falcione had just posted a bracelet for sale to benefit the Ellie Fund and the fight against breast cancer when she noticed the site and app were down. The problem wasn’t just taking orders but filling them too.

“I couldn’t mail out orders because I couldn’t get people’s addresses,” Falcione said. “Our communication is all through Facebook.”

By early Monday evening, Facebook and Instagram were back online and it was back to work for the duo, who said they had a “wake-up call,” realizing they need to have a back-up database with contact information for shipping and contacting customers.

“It really makes it eye-opening how much we rely on [Facebook],” Leighton said. “And we can’t even get in touch with people if we wanted.”

0