The 2025 Black Friday, occurring on November 28, is already triggering a true technological race in the national retail sector. The event, which has evolved from a promotional date to become an entire strategic season, requires the market to anticipate studies, action plans, and improvements aimed not only at ensuring the success of the shopping period but also at securing a significant injection of resources into the Brazilian economy. For this year, for example, the expectation is that revenue will surpass the R$ 13 billion mark in the online environment alone – an increase of approximately 15% compared to the last period, according to forecasts by ABComm Forecast.
To achieve this goal, however, it is essential to place the end consumer at the center of strategies, as they are increasingly demanding and have low tolerance for friction. Today, any millisecond of delay can result in a product selling out or a transaction being canceled due to a desynchronization between inventory and the online storefront – both experiences that generate frustration and put a definitive end to the shopping journey, with the additional side effect of tarnishing the brand's image.
It is in this context that digital resilience becomes indispensable. More than just speed, it is what enables the infrastructure to absorb extreme traffic peaks, adapt to volatile demands, and ensure 100% availability. The cost of downtime during Black Friday is not limited to the lost sale in that minute: it extends to the failure to acquire a customer who loses trust. The debate is no longer just about keeping the site online, but rather about the capacity to deliver an instant and consistent experience to millions of users simultaneously.
Parallel to the challenge of supporting network stress, Black Friday raises another concern for IT teams: security. The massive volume of transactions and the consumers' sense of urgency create an environment susceptible to the actions of cybercriminals. Threats range from payment fraud attempts to volumetric Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, specifically designed to take down operations and cause damage. Data protection is, therefore, crucial and must be viewed as a fundamental guarantee for processes to occur securely and for customer trust to be preserved.
In this high-pressure scenario, the digital infrastructure needs to be intelligent. Technologies such as edge computing serve as strategic allies in this shielding. By processing data closer to the user, the architecture accelerates page loading and inventory validation, in addition to adding a vital layer of resilience. It distributes the access load, preventing the central data center from being overwhelmed, and allows security barriers to operate at the edge, filtering malicious traffic before it reaches the main application.
The success of Black Friday is not measured solely by revenue, but by customer protection and the maintenance of operations under pressure. Performance, in turn, is the result of a good strategy. Organizations that prioritize digital resilience and security prepare for sales peaks while simultaneously building a lasting competitive advantage.
*Rodrigo Rangel Lobo is COO of Edge UOL
