It’s been reported in many forums and on the Yahoo! Merchant Solutions system status page that on August 15th, some Yahoo! Stores experienced some “downtime” due to the failure of a a 3rd party add-on for Google Analytics from Monitus Tools.

According to their website, the Web Analytics Connector for Google Analytics…

…enables Google Analytics to properly track Yahoo! Store e-commerce transactions. Our patent pending method allows you to see the search terms someone used in a search engine to find your site…

–Monitus.net

When technical support calls started coming in to Yahoo!, Solid Cactus and other developers such as 1ChoiceforYourStore, everyone knew this was a serious issue, but since some stores were functioning normally, it couldn’t be an issue on the Yahoo! end of things. Upon further investigation it was found that a piece of tracking code, provided by Monitus and entered into the backend and checkout pages of a Yahoo! Store, was the cause of pages not loading on stores.

Here are some quotes from the Yahoo! Merchant Solutions system status page:

8:48 AM (PDT) - Live Sites - Page Loading to White Screen

Some merchants are reporting page loading errors on their live site where the page is going to a white screen. We are aware of this issue and currently investigating. Additional updates will be provided as more information becomes available.

Update: 9:09 AM (PDT)
We have identified that the javascript for “Monitus Yahoo Store web analytics” is failing. Removal of this code has resolved the issue for reporting merchants.

Update: 10:13 AM (PDT)
When attempting to remove the above code, please remember to remove the code in the checkout pages (including confirmation page) as well. Removing code from the front-end, but leaving it in the checkout pages and/or confirmation page is causing checkout to fail for some reporting merchants.

Update: 11:22 AM (PDT)
This issue appears to have been resolved but will remain open for monitoring until an “All Clear” has been received from Monitus.

Update: 08/17/08 5:23 PM (PDT)
Monitus confirms that this issue was resolved.

Since no public statement from Monitus has been made, we can only speculate that the server the code was installed on either went down or there were problems with the script itself. Either case, it is very concerning, both as a developer and a store owner, that there was no redundancy in case an event such as this happened. Experiencing downtime on an e-commerce store can be killer! And looking at the amount of time that lapsed from initial report to final confirmation that the issue was fixed, nearly 8 hours of business could have been lost for some merchants.

The purpose of this post is not to discredit the product, as it has some very valuable features and a pretty large following based on the number of stores which had issues. The purpose is to call attention to the fact that whenever you install a 3rd party application in your store, you ask the provider a simple question, “What happens to my store if this goes down.” If they don’t know the answer or they say something along the lines of “well, it never happened before, so you shouldn’t have anything to worry about” - stay away! Any provider worth their salt will have a plan in place in the event something like this should happen. Redundant servers in case one should fail, immediate backup recovery of a script in case the running one gets corrupted, emergency backup power in case the lights go out, you get the picture.

At Solid Cactus, we are very aware that unforseen issues do crop up and we sympathize with Monitus, because I’m sure they’re taking a lot of heat for this right now. We’re also aware that communication with customers is key. If an issue develops with a product or service that may effect someone’s store, tell them about it and take quick, proactive steps to rectify the problem. Don’t hide, afraid to say something went wrong. Make a public statement, tell the truth and let your customers know what steps are being taken to discover what happened and is being done to prevent it from happening in the future.

Some of you may now be wondering, “what do I do now?” You may also be afraid to put this tracking code back on your site for fear it may go down again. My personal recommendation is this… Google Analytics is an awesome, free product that provides valuable data to the store owner. Unless you really, really want to dive deep into the data provided, you don’t need anything more than what Google already gives you for free.

Special thanks to Mike Lugo and his group of Solid Cactus “technical support geeks” Kim Good, Carlos San`es, Warren Gunderman and Isaac Boerner who worked with Yahoo! and a slew of clients to identify and assist them in resolving the problem. These are the folks who support our clients Monday - Friday from 9am - 7pm ET in addition to other staff members who are on call 24/7/365 to assist our customers when trouble strikes.