Retailers deliver consistent response times during the holidays

At 2.68 seconds Scholastic.com gave shoppers the fastest high broadband access time among big web retailers in December, says Gomez Inc.

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Scholastic.com was followed by Dell.com (3.25 seconds), Zappos.com (3.75 seconds) and JCPenney.com (4.23 seconds). Using a dial-up connection, Scholastic.com also provided the fastest site response time at 33.18 seconds.

In December, a shopper with a high broadband connection could access a Top 50 retail site in 6.31 seconds, compared with 15.26 seconds for a low broadband connection and 57.36 seconds for dial-up.

Top 50 Web Site Performance Index: Response Time December 01 , 2007 - December 31 , 2007 Response Time (seconds) Rank Retailer Dial Up Low Broadband High Broadband 1 Scholastic 33.18 6.64 2.68 2 Dell 40.32 8.69 3.25 3 Zappos 40.24 9.23 3.75 4 J. C. Penney 41.03 9.72 4.23 5 PC Connection 36.65 9.35 4.31 6 Victorias Secret 55.82 11.89 4.36 7 Musicians Friend 62.68 12.78 4.42 8 Macys Store 42.49 10.78 4.49 9 Office Depot 40.92 10.66 4.67 10 L. L. Bean 60.02 13.20 4.68 11 Saks Fifth Avenue 39.65 9.96 4.77 12 Overstock 41.20 11.43 4.85 13 Chadwicks 47.99 11.21 4.92 14 Footlocker 57.35 12.82 4.96 15 The Home Depot 57.80 13.30 4.98 16 Nordstrom 37.86 11.35 5.10 17 Sony Style 69.64 17.15 5.32 18 HSN 52.56 12.84 5.39 19 Circuit City Home 70.87 16.40 5.53 20 Netflix 45.52 12.30 5.71 21 Wal-Mart 67.99 15.52 5.74 22 Coldwater Creek 40.62 10.99 5.82 23 Avon Shopping 49.95 13.87 5.87 24 Sears 55.75 13.92 5.92 25 Costco 66.16 14.89 6.06 26 Williams-Sonoma 47.50 14.35 6.09 27 FTD 62.46 14.61 6.13 28 Staples 61.69 15.24 6.22   Benchmark Average 57.36 15.26 6.31 29 Quixtar 57.27 15.46 6.32 30 Tiger Direct 69.09 17.09 6.33 31 Blue Nile 44.56 13.02 6.53 32 1-800 Flowers 65.28 16.08 6.56 33 Barnes & Noble 63.46 16.98 6.59 34 Buy.com 65.54 16.10 6.62 35 HP Shopping 60.20 15.33 6.80 36 Newegg 62.42 16.60 6.85 37 Amazon 68.62 17.31 6.97 38 QVC 73.29 20.00 7.37 39 Drugstore 60.13 16.58 7.65 40 Best Buy 64.32 19.11 7.99 41 Toys R Us 76.00 22.59 8.17 42 Neiman Marcus 44.38 14.18 8.24 43 Target 71.96 20.87 8.32 44 OfficeMax 71.54 20.98 8.34 45 Peapod 41.89 14.27 8.52 46 Oriental Trading 83.52 24.45 9.03 47 CDW 67.25 21.87 9.71 48 Gap 94.86 28.28 10.35 49 CompUSA 62.10 19.33 10.49 50 Apple Store 74.22 31.57 11.57 All data for this report is collected by the Gomez Last Mile network, 30 times an hour from Dial Up, Low and High Broadband users across the United States, 24 hours a day except between 3AM to 6AM EDT. Response Time is the average of each test measurement to download the web site content divided by the total number of tests. Copyright© 2008 Gomez, Inc.