Parcelhero says an AWS outage could cost billions of dollars from lost sales, disruption and supply chain issues

• A major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage affected more than 1,000 businesses, disrupting banks, airlines, social media platforms and delivery apps around the world.

• Parcelhero warns that the disruption could cost billions in lost revenue and service interruption, pointing to the previous CrowdStrike failure in 2024 that caused $5.4 billion in losses to Fortune 500 companies.

• David Jenks, head of consumer research at Parcelhero, said the incident highlights the fragility of global e-commerce as many companies rely on a few core cloud service providers.

• In a 2024 survey, 76 percent of global respondents reported using AWS, and 48 percent of developers relied on its services. Apps including Snapchat, Reddit and Lloyds Bank were among those affected.

The Amazon Web Services failure has affected more than 1,000 businesses, and could cost companies and retailers billions of dollars in lost revenue and service disruption, says home delivery specialist Parcelhero.

Today’s Amazon Web Services outage disrupted access to banks, airlines, social media platforms and delivery apps. Home delivery specialist Parcelhero says that when a similar event occurred last year in Crowdstrike, it cost Fortune 500 companies $5.4 billion in losses and affected a wide range of companies globally.

“Once again, global e-commerce companies and services have been reminded how fragile the online ecosystem is, when many businesses rely on a few key providers,” says David Jenks-Millet, Head of Consumer Research at Parcelhero.

In the 2024 survey, 76 percent of global respondents reported that they ran applications on AWS and 48 percent of developers used its services. Snapchat, Reddit, and Lloyds Bank are among the apps and websites affected by today’s failure. Downdetector reported that the AWS outage affected more than 1,000 companies.

“Even if e-commerce companies and delivery organizations escaped the immediate impact of the AWS outage, payments may have failed due to banking and other issues.

With airline systems affected, there may also be problems in the global supply chain, as much of the world’s air freight is transported in the belly of passenger planes. So far, the impact on airlines appears to be limited to minor delays, but during the Crowdstrike outage, airports and ports alike were affected.

Today’s outage is believed to have initially occurred in Amazon’s US-EAST-1 region in Virginia, the original and largest location for Web Services. Although the initial issue that caused the issue was fixed within hours, ongoing issues could impact some businesses for several more hours if not days, if the impact of the Crowdstrike incident recurs.

Post-AWS outage could cost billions of dollars in sales, disruption and supply chain losses, says Parcelhero, which first appeared on Air Cargo Week.