A sign showing where Indigo plans to open a new store this fall is seen at the Mall at Short Hills in Short Hills, N.J., on July 22, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Craig Wong
TORONTO – Retail experts say the risks of reputational damage are growing for Indigo Books & Music Inc. as its website remains off-line more than a week after a cyberattack.
Retail expert Lisa Hutcheson says the company looks to have navigated the incident reasonably well so far by being transparent and keeping customers informed.
The company has issued several updates about the outage, which took its website off-line and disrupted in-store payments, including a notice Tuesday that customer credit and debit card information was not compromised.
Hutcheson says however that at some point frustration will overtake customer patience and they will look elsewhere to shop.
Retail analyst and author Bruce Winder says customers are understanding as the number of cybersecurity incidents increase, but it only goes so far.
He says if the outage drags on much longer it risks serious reputational damage as customers wonder about company competency.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2023.
Companies in this story: (TSX:IDG)
