Data Security
This week we want to talk about data security. This conversation isn’t as simple as it used to be. Remember the days when you kept your files in a box safe under the desk? In the pre-internet era, every company was responsible for its own data security. And even for much of the last few decades that has still been true, at least when data was more typically stored on on-site servers.
Today however, the widespread use of SaaS (Software as a Service) means that an awful lot of companies are actually storing their data elsewhere, on third-party servers. Where exactly is it? You might not know the answer, in geographical terms. And who’s responsible for its security? Well, the short answer is: you are.
Read the small print, and you’ll find that most SaaS products can cover you for just about everything except for data recovery. Sure, it might be backed up on their server, but retrieving it in a useful format is another story altogether.
There are various different ways your data may come under threat:
- Human error. The oldest case in the book, we’ll never be too advanced as a civilisation to not occasionally make a mess of things ourselves.
- Cyber attacks. Be they rival companies, data pirates, platform hijackers or disgruntled ex-employees, malicious attacks remain one of the larger threats to data security.
- Third party cock-ups. Think about all those apps and plug-ins your business uses. How many of them requested permission to “read and write” to your data? Now, if one of them were to malfunction…
- Spreadsheet disasters. You would be surprised how much damage can be caused even by the humble CSV sheet. Here’s a case study of a retailer who lost 100,000 SKUs as the result of a CSV file error.
But now to the good news… let’s talk about how to stop that from happening.
Let’s talk about Rewind.
Rewind: The Ultimate Shopify Backup Solution
You'd be right to assume that Shopify automatically backs up your store, but there responsibility ends with restoring the entire platform and your entire store incase of catastrophic failure.
Shopify is your brand’s window to the world. And it’s an investment, too – all those hours spent fine-tuning product listings, and crafting the perfect shopping experience. But one day, disaster strikes. An accidental data deletion, a buggy app, or even a malicious attack threatens to wipe out everything you’ve built.
You'd be right to assume that Shopify automatically backs up your store, but there responsibility ends with restoring the entire platform and your entire store incase of catastrophic failure.
They do not provide backup solutions within individual stores. And that’s where Rewind comes into play.
Rewind is a potentially lifesaving app that integrates seamlessly with your Shopify store, automatically backing up all your critical data. With Rewind, you can quite simply “rewind” your store to a previous state, instantly recovering lost or deleted information. Think of it as a time machine for your online business.
Getting Started with Rewind
Getting set up with Rewind is refreshingly straightforward. First, select your package: from $9 per month for smaller stores, all the way up to top-tier packages for stores handling 1000s of orders per month. Install the app and then start getting to know your “Vault,” the control panel page that gives a summary of saved backups. There’s a lot of potential for fine-tuning after that, and robust customer support to help you get the most from it all.
Rewind and App Integration
The makers of Rewind understand that this probably won’t be the only third-party app you’re using in your store. For that reason, it’s been designed to support open and intuitive integrations, including incredibly simple collaboration with a number of partner apps – such as Gorgias, the popular customer support helpdesk.
Inspira Recommends Rewind
The cost of data loss to your business can be enormous – even incalculable. And can you guess why we’re talking about Rewind now, towards the end of the year? That’s right – just picture the catastrophe it would be to have your Shopify store go down during Black Friday / Cyber Monday, the online shopping event of the year.
Take it from our friends at Gymshark. When their store went offline for 8 hours over Black Friday 2015, it cost them an estimated $143,000 in lost sales, with a Shopify report adding: “Worse, it also cost the company the trust it had spent years earning from customers expecting a great experience.”
Nowadays, Gymshark is using Rewind to back up all 14 of their Shopify stores.
Another client of ours had their own potential commerce catastrophe, not long ago. This brand had worked with a third-party freelancer, asking them to modify their smart collections rules, but these modifications were incorrectly applied and now their collections were pulling in the wrong products and making a mess of their store experience.
Using Rewind, we were able to put things right for them – restoring an earlier version of the smart collection rules and neatly sidestepping disaster.
That’s why today, we recommend Rewind integration to all of our clients.
Give yourself some added protection against the unexpected… against third-party malfunctions, against malicious attacks, and against good old human error.
Talk to Inspira today about building Rewind into your Shopify store.
