# How KIKO Milano scales for Black Friday

DevFeed: [How KIKO Milano scales for Black Friday](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/how-kiko-milano-scales-for-black-friday-743.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://vercel.com/blog/how-kiko-milano-scales-for-black-friday>)

Author: Meghan Schaefer

Published: 2026-05-05T07:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Vercel News](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/vercel-news.md>)

Topics: [Vercel](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/vercel.md>), [Amazon EC2](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/amazon-ec2.md>), [Amazon Web Services](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/aws.md>), [build times](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/build-times.md>), [Provisioning](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/provisioning.md>), [configuration](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/configuration.md>), [App](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/app.md>), [releases](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/releases.md>)

Tags: [aws](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/aws.md>), [configuration](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/configuration.md>), [infra](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/infra.md>), [infrastructure](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/infrastructure.md>), [performance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/performance.md>), [provisioning](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/provisioning.md>), [releases](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/releases.md>), [vercel](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/vercel.md>)

## AI overview

KIKO Milano moved its ecommerce application from manually scaled AWS infrastructure to Vercel. The migration eliminated three weeks of Black Friday infrastructure preparation, reduced application build times by 75%, and enabled the team to deploy multiple times per day. Automatic scaling and on-demand environments allowed the team to focus on campaigns, testing, and the ecommerce experience instead of infrastructure limits.

## Source excerpt

KIKO Milano on Vercel: Eliminated 3 weeks of Black Friday infrastructure prep 75% decrease in app build times Went from minimal releases to deploying multiple times per day KIKO Milano's ecommerce team used to treat peak traffic as an operations project. Weeks before Black Friday, they had to manually scale AWS infrastructure and adjust application configuration, knowing that if demand exceeded forecasts, their site could slow down or even break, costing them real revenue. After migrating to Vercel, they removed manual prep from their playbook. Instead of provisioning infrastructure, their team now ships campaigns and tests daily. The Black Friday problem: manual scaling and stressful failure modes Before Vercel, KIKO ran their ecommerce app on AWS EC2 instances sized for normal traffic, then scaled by hand ahead of peak periods. This was their previous process leading into Black Friday: Manual scaling window: Black Friday prep began 2-3 weeks ahead of the event, then had to be unwound after the traffic spike passed. Infrastructure configuration: The infra team manually adjusted AWS EC2 capacity to support expected traffic. Application configuration: Scaling also required application-side changes, making peak readiness more than just an infrastructure task. War room prep: Chat channels and conference rooms were set up for teams to triage performance and downtime problems. Beyond the manual prep work, KIKO's dev team had to anticipate failure modes that hurt the business. Slow navigation and site instability made it hard for users to purchase, and, in Ant's words, they knew that at any point, "everything could break." Worry-free delivery and automatic scaling Vercel changed the work from preparation to execution. With environments available on demand, faster builds, and automatic scaling during traffic spikes, Ant's team stopped planning around infrastructure limits and focused on the ecommerce experience itself. Environments without the bottleneck KIKO's old setup r