Netflix leads in overall bytes per second

Netflix Inc. provided visitors and shoppers with the most bytes per second in October, according to a new performance index by Gomez Inc.

The index of the web’s 50 largest retailers as ranked by annual e-commerce sales shows that customers using a high broadband connection, low broadband connection or dial-up on average could access about 20.7 bytes of information per second from Netflix.com. Netflix was followed by Eddie Bauer (15.8 bytes), Nordstrom (9.9 bytes), Blue Nile (9.4 bytes), Peapod (8.4 bytes), Sears (7.8 bytes), Dell (7.2 bytes), Zappos (6.7 bytes), Cornerstone Brands (6.7 bytes) and Quixtar (5.8 bytes).

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Measuring how many bytes per second shoppers can download using multiple connections is a key indicator of web site performance and customer satisfaction. Overall shoppers could access an average of about 3.4 bytes per second on the 50 largest retail sites, according to Gomez.

Another key indicator of site performance is measuring the average of how long it takes a customer to access a retailer’s landing page. The Gomez index, which averages the access time for high broadband, low broadband and dial-up, notes that shoppers can access BlueNile.com in a blended time of 2.4 seconds, compared to Dell (3.6 seconds), Costco (4 seconds), Cornerstone Brands (4.1 seconds), Sears (4.1 seconds), FTD (4.3 seconds), Drugstore.com (5.2 seconds), Scholastic (5.5 seconds), Zappos (5.8 seconds) and Peapod (5.8 seconds). On average visitors and shoppers could access a Top 50 retail web site in about 12.8 seconds, Gomez says.

Top 50 Performance Index: Optimization October 1, 2005 - October 31, 2005 Efficiency Rating Rank Site (bytes/ second) 1 Netflix Inc. 20.73 2 Eddie Bauer 15.86 3 Nordstrom Inc. 9.91 4 Blue Nile Inc. 9.40 5 Peapod Inc.  8.48 6 Sears 7.88 7 Dell Inc. 7.28 8 Zappos.com Inc. 6.75 9 Cornerstone Brands 6.71 10 Quixtar Inc.  5.87 11 Avon Products Inc. 5.27 12 Neiman Marcus Group  4.98 13 Gateway Inc.  4.57 14 Wal-Mart Stores Inc.  4.29 15 Scholastic Corp. 3.71 16 Office Depot Inc.  3.48   Average 3.40 17 PC Mall Inc. 3.33 18 OfficeMax Inc. 3.31 19 Staples Inc. 3.19 20 CompUSA Inc. 3.04 21 Cabela's Inc. 2.60 22 Gap Inc. 2.20 23 Williams Sonoma Inc. 2.05 24 Drugstore.com Inc. 1.98 25 Costco Wholesale 1.97 26 Apple Computer Inc. 1.81 27 Coldwater Creek Inc. 1.63 28 HPDirect Inc. 1.63 29 Best Buy Co. 1.59 30 Toys "R" Us Inc. 1.33 31 Circuit City Stores Inc. 1.18 32 Musicians Friend 1.14 33 CDW Corp. 1.02 34 Kmart Corp. 0.85 35 JC Penney Co. Inc. 0.81 36 Amazon.com Inc. 0.62 37 QVC Inc. 0.56 38 Target Corp. 0.55 39 1-800-Flowers.com 0.55 40 Barnes & Noble Inc. 0.53 41 HSN.com 0.42 42 TigerDirect Inc. 0.36 43 Newegg.com 0.34 44 Overstock.com Inc. 0.28 45 FTD Inc. 0.12 46 Buy.com Inc. 0.10 47 SonyStyle.com 0.07 48 Redcats USA 0.07 49 The Home Depot Inc. 0.02 50 L.L. Bean Inc. N/A Quality Rating Rank Site (bytes/ second) 1 Blue Nile Inc. 2.46 2 Dell Inc. 3.62 3 Costco Wholesale 4.00 4 Cornerstone Brands 4.12 5 Sears 4.17 6 FTD Inc. 4.31 7 Drugstore.com Inc. 5.27 8 Scholastic Corp. 5.55 9 Zappos.com Inc. 5.86 10 Peapod Inc.  5.87 11 Coldwater Creek Inc. 6.17 12 1-800-Flowers.com 6.45 13 Office Depot Inc.  6.62 14 Avon Products Inc. 6.71 15 Cabela's Inc. 7.15 16 Eddie Bauer 7.16 17 Nordstrom Inc. 7.25 18 J.C. Penney Co. Inc. 7.41 19 Staples Inc. 7.88 20 Netflix Inc. 7.95 21 HPDirect Inc. 7.96 22 SonyStyle.com 8.51 23 OfficeMax Inc. 8.54 24 Wal-Mart Stores Inc.  9.86 25 Apple Computer Inc. 9.91 26 Williams Sonoma Inc. 10.42 27 Best Buy Co. 10.51 28 Neiman Marcus Group  10.64 29 Amazon.com Inc. 11.20 30 Quixtar Inc.  11.92 Average 12.05 31 Toys "R" Us Inc. 12.12 32 CompUSA Inc. 12.45 33 The Home Depot Inc. 12.76 34 Gateway Inc. 12.89 35 QVC Inc. 13.13 36 Circuit City Stores Inc. 13.42 37 Redcats USA 13.75 38 Buy.com Inc. 13.92 39 Barnes & Noble Inc. 14.70 40 HSN.com 14.87 41 TigerDirect Inc. 14.95 42 Gap Inc. 16.85 43 Musicians Friend 19.57 44 PC Mall Inc. 23.42 45 Newegg.com 23.72 46 CDW Corp. 24.77 47 Target Corp. 27.48 48 Overstock.com 35.20 49 Kmart Corp. 55.06 50 L.L. Bean Inc. N/A Copyright © 2005 Gomez, Inc.                                       www.gomez.com Efficiency is a measure of how quickly an E-Retailer can deliver content across multiple connection speeds (Dial Up, Low Broadband, and High Broadband) to consumers. Quality is a measure in seconds of long a consumer can expect it to take for a Homepage to load regardless of connection speed (Dial Up, Low Broadband, and High Broadband).