Dial-up times vary widely among top retailers

Despite the fact that more web retailers are gearing up to receive traffic from shoppers and visitors with broadband connectivity, many U.S. households still shop online and surf the Internet using a modem. How fast visitors can access a Top 50 retail site varies widely, says Gomez Inc.

Top 500 Guide

In its latest measurement of the web’s Top 50 retail sites for January, it took visitors an average of 56.8 seconds to access a top site using a modem and dial-up access. But some retail sites were faster to load then others. At the top of the Gomez index, visitors could access Peapod with a dial-up connection in 38.8 seconds, followed by Netflix (40.1 seconds), Avon (44.2 seconds), Office Max (44.6 seconds), Zappos (45.8 seconds), Dell (46.6 seconds), Eddie Bauer (47.7), Drugstore.com (48.1 seconds), Nordstrom (48.9 seconds) and HSN.com (48.9 seconds).

Top 50 retailers with the slowest loading dial-up access in January included Target (86 seconds), Newegg.com (83.8 seconds) and Gap (82.4 seconds), Gomez says.

Matt Poepsel, vice president and general manager at Gomez Inc., will speak at the Internet Retailer 2006 Conference & Exhibition in a session titled Revealing & Analyzing America's 500 Largest E-Retailers.

Top 50 Performance Index: Site Success Rate  January 1, 2006 - February 1, 2006 Availability (%) Site Dial Up (%) Low Broadband (%) High Broadband (%) Peapod 38.86 7.27 4.48 Netflix 40.11 9.71 4.49 Avon 44.27 11.91 4.45 Office Max 44.66 10.16 4.52 Zappos 45.82 5.94 2.70 Dell 46.65 7.79 3.70 Eddie Bauer 47.71 10.07 4.26 Drugstore.com 48.10 8.76 4.44 Office Depot 48.12 9.36 4.23 Nordstrom 48.91 11.32 6.33 Home Shopping Network 48.96 10.50 4.39 QVC.com 49.03 10.64 4.42 Coldwater Creek Inc. 49.80 8.99 4.59 JC Penney 49.99 10.82 4.87 Quixtar 50.42 11.48 5.46 Blue Nile 51.33 9.86 5.25 Scholastic 51.84 7.55 3.63 Staples 52.39 12.74 4.91 CDW 53.23 16.53 7.75 Wal-mart 53.79 13.45 5.50 Williams-Sonoma Inc. 54.16 11.96 5.74 Neiman Marcus 54.78 12.80 5.27 Cabelas 55.32 10.79 4.87 Apple 55.81 10.82 4.69 Gateway 56.03 13.62 6.16 Benchmark Average 56.82 13.25 5.81 Best Buy Co. 56.88 13.98 6.40 Toys R Us 56.88 11.54 5.46 Sears, Roebuck and Co. 57.28 13.16 5.66 Cornerstone Brands Inc. 57.77 14.43 7.16 Amazon.com 58.07 9.73 4.29 HP Direct 59.99 14.46 5.85 Barnes and Noble 60.73 13.17 5.52 Costco Wholesale Corp. 60.96 18.66 9.73 Redcats 61.71 12.90 5.48 Kmart 64.48 18.20 8.72 FTD 66.11 11.71 5.00 Circuit City Stores 67.52 14.52 5.81 Overstock.com Inc. 68.02 17.55 7.82 CompUSA Inc. 68.53 17.75 7.26 PC Mall 68.58 16.44 7.24 Home Depot 68.94 18.12 7.19 1-800-Flowers.com Inc. 68.97 19.05 9.73 Musicians Friend 75.95 15.87 6.50 Buy.com 77.32 15.33 6.15 Tiger Direct 77.39 16.12 5.96 Sony Style 80.69 17.37 6.06 GAP 82.47 25.43 9.53 New Egg 83.82 21.95 8.29 Target 86.05 19.11 7.54 L.L. Bean Inc. N/A N/A N/A  Copyright © 2006 Gomez, Inc.                                      www.gomez.com