diff --git a/catalog-service/src/main/java/com/example/catalogservice/config/WebClientConfiguration.java b/catalog-service/src/main/java/com/example/catalogservice/config/WebClientConfiguration.java
index 89c8adbe..a70e2dfd 100644
--- a/catalog-service/src/main/java/com/example/catalogservice/config/WebClientConfiguration.java
+++ b/catalog-service/src/main/java/com/example/catalogservice/config/WebClientConfiguration.java
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 /***
 <p>
-    Licensed under MIT License Copyright (c) 2022-2023 Raja Kolli.
+    Licensed under MIT License Copyright (c) 2022-2024 Raja Kolli.
 </p>
 ***/
 
@@ -11,9 +11,11 @@ Licensed under MIT License Copyright (c) 2022-2023 Raja Kolli.
 
 import io.netty.handler.timeout.ReadTimeoutHandler;
 import io.netty.handler.timeout.WriteTimeoutHandler;
+import java.time.Duration;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+import org.springframework.boot.web.reactive.function.client.WebClientCustomizer;
 import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
 import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
 import org.springframework.http.HttpHeaders;
@@ -23,6 +25,8 @@ Licensed under MIT License Copyright (c) 2022-2023 Raja Kolli.
 import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.client.ExchangeFilterFunction;
 import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.client.WebClient;
 import reactor.netty.http.client.HttpClient;
+import reactor.netty.resources.ConnectionProvider;
+import reactor.util.retry.Retry;
 
 @Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
 public class WebClientConfiguration {
@@ -37,14 +41,30 @@ public WebClientConfiguration(ApplicationProperties applicationProperties) {
 
     @Bean
     WebClient webClient(WebClient.Builder webClientBuilder) {
-        return webClientBuilder
-                .defaultHeader(HttpHeaders.ACCEPT, MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_VALUE)
-                .defaultHeader(HttpHeaders.CONTENT_TYPE, MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_VALUE)
-                .filter(logRequestDetails())
-                .filter(logResponseDetails())
-                .baseUrl(applicationProperties.getInventoryServiceUrl())
-                .clientConnector(new ReactorClientHttpConnector(clientConnectorConfig()))
-                .build();
+        return webClientBuilder.baseUrl(applicationProperties.getInventoryServiceUrl()).build();
+    }
+
+    @Bean
+    WebClientCustomizer webClientCustomizer() {
+        return webClientBuilder ->
+                webClientBuilder
+                        .defaultHeaders(
+                                httpHeaders -> {
+                                    httpHeaders.add(
+                                            HttpHeaders.ACCEPT, MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_VALUE);
+                                    httpHeaders.add(
+                                            HttpHeaders.CONTENT_TYPE,
+                                            MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_VALUE);
+                                    httpHeaders.add(HttpHeaders.ACCEPT_ENCODING, "gzip");
+                                })
+                        .filter(logRequestDetails())
+                        .filter(logResponseDetails())
+                        .filter(
+                                (request, next) ->
+                                        next.exchange(request)
+                                                .retryWhen(
+                                                        Retry.backoff(3, Duration.ofMillis(100))))
+                        .clientConnector(new ReactorClientHttpConnector(clientConnectorConfig()));
     }
 
     private ExchangeFilterFunction logRequestDetails() {
@@ -85,8 +105,17 @@ private ExchangeFilterFunction logResponseDetails() {
     }
 
     private HttpClient clientConnectorConfig() {
-        return HttpClient.create()
+        ConnectionProvider connectionProvider =
+                ConnectionProvider.builder("custom")
+                        .maxConnections(10)
+                        .pendingAcquireMaxCount(50)
+                        .maxIdleTime(Duration.ofSeconds(20))
+                        .maxLifeTime(Duration.ofSeconds(60))
+                        .build();
+
+        return HttpClient.create(connectionProvider)
                 .option(CONNECT_TIMEOUT_MILLIS, 10_000)
+                .responseTimeout(Duration.ofSeconds(10))
                 .doOnConnected(
                         conn -> {
                             conn.addHandlerLast(new ReadTimeoutHandler(15, TimeUnit.SECONDS));
diff --git a/catalog-service/src/test/java/com/example/catalogservice/TestCatalogServiceApplication.java b/catalog-service/src/test/java/com/example/catalogservice/TestCatalogServiceApplication.java
index e60f9beb..edd5477a 100644
--- a/catalog-service/src/test/java/com/example/catalogservice/TestCatalogServiceApplication.java
+++ b/catalog-service/src/test/java/com/example/catalogservice/TestCatalogServiceApplication.java
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ PostgreSQLContainer<?> postgreSqlContainer() {
     @ServiceConnection
     KafkaContainer kafkaContainer(DynamicPropertyRegistry dynamicPropertyRegistry) {
         KafkaContainer kafkaContainer =
-                new KafkaContainer(DockerImageName.parse("confluentinc/cp-kafka").withTag("7.6.0"))
+                new KafkaContainer(DockerImageName.parse("confluentinc/cp-kafka").withTag("7.6.2"))
                         .withKraft()
                         .withReuse(true);
         dynamicPropertyRegistry.add(