Digital Marketing and Technological Insight

In this world of instant, on-demand, online gratification and 24/7/365 shopping very few things surprise me when it comes to e-commerce. In fact, I have basically come to believe that the almighty dollar is the only thing that matters to any, and every, company doing business online. Is this wrong? No, it isn’t - it is just how it is. However, this is why my whole perspective changed so dramatically this past weekend when I went to the website of a popular camera and video store called B&H Photo and Video. I am sure many of you are familiar with their “super center” in NYC - basically it is THE place for anything related to photo and video equipment. Being in the market for a new digital camera their website was the first place I thought of visiting…when I went their Saturday afternoon I was surprised to see the below message on their homepage:

Knowing how much business B&H does online I was very surprised to see that their website was “down” during such a peak time for shopping. I thought this was odd, but not totally out of the ordinary for an e-commerce site. However, after surfing around their website I came across the following message: “Please note that B&H does not process web orders from Friday evening to Saturday evening.” This message linked to the exact times they will be “down” for the next few weeks. Being “down” for this specific time period rang some bells in my head and I knew it had something to do with the Jewish religion (excuse my ignorance). After digging around I quickly realized that one of the most comprehensive and popular destinations in their category wasn’t taking orders for Shabbat. For the uneducated like me, Shabbat is the 7th day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism.

This completely blew me away. As you can see from the below screenshot, the option to checkout, no matter how many items you put in your shopping cart, was taken away. I attempted every conceivable way to purchase something on their site and it was impossible. I was certain their would be some sort of delayed ordering process in place…but nothing that I could find. During the Shabbat you could browse their website all you wanted but if you wanted to order something you had to wait.

The amount of money lost during the 24 hour +/- time period of Shabbat  is significant, however it is obvious the owners of the business could care less about the lost revenue and focus more on their core religious beliefs and principals. You have to admire this no matter where you stand when it comes to religion or business. How many e-commerce executives would be able to make this call? Not many.

This is the first time I have seen or heard of this - I would love to hear about any other examples of e-commerce websites having planned “shut downs” for religious or similar reasons.