Peapod leads in high broadband site availability

Web site performance, specifically how often a retailing site remains online despite frequent heavy traffic, remains a key benchmark of how successful retailers are in meeting customer expectations.

Overall, the web’s 50 largest retailers as ranked by annual sales in The Top 400 Guide, are doing an adequate job of keeping their e-commerce sites online an average of 98.6% of the time in a high broadband environment, according to a new weekly performance index by Gomez Inc.

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When accessed via a high broadband connection, Peapod Inc. is available 99.6% of the time, according to Gomez. Peapod is followed by Costco Wholesale Corp. (99.5%), QVC Inc. (99.4%), FTD Inc. (99.4%), Amazon.com (99.4%), Office Depot Inc. (99.4%), Nordstrom Inc. (99.3%), Apple Computer Corp. (99.3%) Quixtar Inc. (99.3%) and Blue Nile Inc. (99.3%).

The top 50 sites with the lowest high broadband availability as measured by Gomez include CompUSA Inc. (89.8%) and SonyStyle.com (96.9%).

Though more retailers are preparing for the day when the majority of their site traffic will come from shoppers with a broadband connection, dial-up availability also remains an important performance indicator. The Gomez index shows that on average customers with a dial-up connection can access a Top 50 retail web site 93.2% of the time, though there is a wide variance in individual site performance.

The Gomez weekly index notes that Zappos.com Inc. is the top 50 site with the highest dial-up availability at 99.4%. The lowest dial-up availability average of the Top 50 include MusiciansFriend.com at 66.9% and CompUSA at 70.2%.

Top 50 Performance Index: Site Success Rate  September 1, 2005 - September 30, 2005 Availability (%) Site Dial Up Low              Broadband High             Broadband Peapod Inc. 99.45% 99.66% 99.65% Costco Wholesale Corp. 98.86% 99.50% 99.57% QVC Inc. 98.48% 99.14% 99.47% FTD Inc. 98.81% 99.57% 99.46% Amazon.com Inc. 99.06% 99.26% 99.41% Office Depot Inc. 99.21% 99.42% 99.40% Nordstrom Inc. 98.71% 99.51% 99.39% Apple Computer Inc. 97.84% 98.55% 99.39% Quixtar Inc. 98.14% 99.18% 99.36% Blue Nile Inc. 98.74% 99.16% 99.30% Drugstore.com Inc. 98.66% 99.05% 99.30% OfficeMax Inc. 98.85% 99.44% 99.28% Zappos.com Inc. 99.49% 99.08% 99.27% Coldwater Creek Inc. 98.86% 99.28% 99.24% J.C. Penney Co. Inc. 97.68% 98.74% 99.20% Cornerstone Brands Inc. 97.51% 98.85% 99.19% Williams-Sonoma Inc. 97.62% 98.59% 99.17% Avon Products Inc. 98.78% 99.40% 99.17% Dell Inc. 99.06% 98.28% 99.16% Toys "R" Us Inc. 97.60% 98.98% 99.16% Cabela`s Inc. 98.02% 98.91% 99.11% Barnes & Noble Inc. 98.10% 98.28% 99.10% Scholastic Corp. 99.11% 98.99% 99.09% Sears, Roebuck and Co. 97.10% 98.63% 99.00% 1-800-Flowers.com Inc. 94.82% 98.79% 99.00% Gateway Inc. 96.69% 99.10% 98.96% CDW Corp. 96.43% 99.09% 98.95% Wal-Mart Stores Inc. 97.71% 98.01% 98.90% Eddie Bauer 98.81% 98.86% 98.83% Neiman Marcus Group Inc. 96.06% 98.80% 98.79% Overstock.com Inc. 92.51% 98.49% 98.78% HSN.com 97.49% 98.79% 98.74% Circuit City Stores 94.86% 98.36% 98.73% Target Corp. 55.80% 98.16% 98.71% HPDirect Inc. 96.75% 98.92% 98.68% Benchmark Average 93.92% 98.15% 98.68% Musician`s Friend 66.93% 98.24% 98.67% Netflix Inc. 97.98% 98.18% 98.62% Buy.com Inc. 87.51% 98.57% 98.61% Redcats USA 96.55% 97.90% 98.52% Staples Inc. 95.65% 98.67% 98.45% PC Mall Inc.. 94.75% 98.24% 98.32% Kmart Corp. 94.77% 98.40% 98.28% The Home Depot Inc. 93.94% 97.87% 98.27% TigerDirect Inc. 89.53% 96.48% 98.14% Best Buy Co. 92.21% 96.35% 98.05% Newegg.com 75.88% 96.51% 97.92% Gap Inc. 90.88% 96.10% 97.00% SonyStyle.com 73.44% 93.33% 96.95% CompUSA Inc. 70.20% 81.64% 89.85% L.L. Bean Inc. N/A N/A N/A  Copyright © 2005 Gomez, Inc.