Top retailers vary widely in dial-up access

Despite the fact that dial-up web access has been around for years and many households still use their telephone and a modem to connect to the Internet, how fast shoppers can access a top 50 retail site remains inconsistent.

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In fact, according to Gomez Inc., the dial-up site availability average of the web’s Top 50 retailers in January can vary by as much as 60%.

The retail sites with the highest site availability rate when the site is accessed by a dial-up connection included Peapod, Netflix, Avon, Office Max, Zappos, Dell, Eddie Bauer, Drugstore.com, Office Depot, Nordstrom and HSN.com.

At the other end of the Gomez January index, Target was followed by Newegg, Gap, Target, SonyStyle, Tiger Direct, and Buy.com.

Top 50 Performance Index: Site Response Time  Januaryr 1, 2006 - February 1, 2006 Response Time (seconds) 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